Council or transport authority Yellow box PCN
This situation: If a vehicle ahead changed what it was doing after you entered, so you had to stop, and a simple stationary queue was not the real reason, the charge may not fit. - full question

Did the car in front do something sudden, like brake hard or change lane, after you had already gone into the box, so you had to stop?

Challenge guidance for this situation

This page explains a common yellow box PCN appeal angle. If the checker brought you here, the guidance below is adjusted using your yes/no answer in the URL. This is not legal advice.

Your draft letter

Replace everything in [square brackets] with your own details. Scroll inside the box if the text is long. 

Subject: Representation / appeal: yellow box [PCN number]

I dispute this penalty. I had to stop in the yellow box because a vehicle ahead behaved unexpectedly after I had already entered the box.

What happened: [e.g. braked hard / changed lane / stopped on the far side and then tried to move left; describe simply].

I did not stop only because of normal stationary traffic queued ahead in the usual way. The other driver's action left me nowhere to go.

Please check the CCTV for this sequence of events.

[Date, time, location, registration.]

Yours faithfully,

[Name]

Guidance for your case

What to do next

Say what the other vehicle did and when. Ask them to watch the video for that moment.

Why this can matter

Adjudicators have allowed appeals where the driver had to stop because of another vehicle's sudden move, not because of ordinary stationary traffic ahead in the queue.

Sudden move ahead: get them to watch the clip for that vehicle.