Glossop Road Bus Gate near to junction with Upper Hanover Street

Roedd y cais yn llwyddiannus.

Dear Sheffield City Council,

Re: Glossop Road Bus Gate near to junction with Upper Hanover Street:
- I understand this bus gate is not enforced by cameras, but there are signs on Glossop Road, on its approach, that suggest that there are bus lane cameras operating for this bus gate.
There is a camera directed towards this particular bus gate on Glossop Road at the junction with Gell Street, but your website shows that this bus gate is not 'enforced' by cameras.
- Q1: Could you confirm whether this particular bus gate is enforced by cameras or not?
- Q2: If the bus gate is not enforced by cameras, are you able to advise me what the purpose of the said camera is, on Glossop Rd with Gell Street facing towards this bus gate?
- Q3: If the bus gate is not enforced by cameras, can you confirm that no penalty charge notices have ever been issued by Sheffield City Council to motorists driving through this particular bus gate?

Re Cavendish Street road signage:
- I wish to advise you, that the sign sited on Cavendish Street with the junction with Glossop Road, stating that the bus gate at the left turn with Glossop Road is 60 yds. ahead, appears to be incorrect. I believe it is approximately 100 yds.
- Q4: Will you correct this sign, if found to be incorrect?

Vehicles turning into Glossop Road:
- I wish to also enquire with regard to vehicles turning towards this bus gate, at the following junctions with Glossop Road?:
- Cavendish Street left turn
- Regent Terrace right turn
- Victoria Street (South) left turn
- Victoria Street (North) right turn
Q5: Would vehicles performing the above stated manoeuvres, be contravening the 'enforced' bus gate, when in operation, at the junction with Regent Street?
Q6: Can you confirm that all penalty charge notices issued by Sheffield City Council, to motorists, on Glossop Road, for bus gate violations, are for non-exempt vehicles contravening the restrictions and driving straight through this particular 'enforced' bus gate, at the junction with Regent Street and at no other point?

I am researching these particular bus gates on Glossop Road to try and determine where the contraventions are being made or are occurring.

Yours faithfully,

David Blythen

FOI, Sheffield City Council

Link: [1]File-List

Dear David Blythen,

 

Thank you for your recent request for information relating to Bus gates
and road signage which we received on 29/07/2019.

 

This has been logged as a Freedom of Information Request, and will be
dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act.  The reference number for
your request can be found above.

 

The Freedom of Information Act states that we must respond to you within
20 working days, therefore, you should expect to hear a response from us
by 27/08/2019.

 

In the meantime, if you have any queries please, contact us at the email
address below.

 

Thank you.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Sheffield City Council

PO Box 1283

Sheffield, S1 1UJ

Email: [2][Sheffield City Council request email]

P Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to

 

 

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

FOI, Sheffield City Council

Link: [1]File-List

Dear David Blythen,

 

Thank you for your recent request for information relating to Bus gates
and road signage which we received on 29/07/2019.

 

Please find below, Sheffield City Council’s response to your request:

 

Q1: Could you confirm whether this particular bus gate is enforced by
cameras or not?

 

There is a camera located here that can be used for enforcement.  The gate
can also be enforced by the Police.

 

Q2: If the bus gate is not enforced by cameras, are you able to advise me
what the purpose of the said camera is, on Glossop Rd with Gell Street
facing towards this bus gate?

 

This camera could be used for enforcement of the bus gate. It is currently
not being used for this purpose, but is used by the Council’s CCTV team to
monitor incidents
([2]https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/home/your-c...)

 

Q3: If the bus gate is not enforced by cameras, can you confirm that no
penalty charge notices have ever been issued by Sheffield City Council to
motorists driving through this particular bus gate?

 

The gate has been enforced using a camera situated here and penalties have
previously been issued. As stated above, the camera is able to be used for
enforcement.

 

Re Cavendish Street road signage:

I wish to advise you, that the sign sited on Cavendish Street with the
junction with Glossop Road, stating that the bus gate at the left turn
with Glossop Road is 60 yds. ahead, appears to be incorrect. I believe it
is approximately 100 yds.

 

Q4: Will you correct this sign, if found to be incorrect?

 

The sign on Cavendish Street is a map style direction sign. It depicts the
bus gate location to the left, at the junction ahead and how far from the
junction the restriction is. It is not a distance from the sign to the
restriction. It is an information sign, not a regulatory sign. The
regulatory signs are located at the gate positions. The sign is correct.

 

Vehicles turning into Glossop Road:

I wish to also enquire with regard to vehicles turning towards this bus
gate, at the following junctions with Glossop Road?:

- Cavendish Street left turn

- Regent Terrace right turn

- Victoria Street (South) left turn

- Victoria Street (North) right turn

 

Q5: Would vehicles performing the above stated manoeuvres, be contravening
the 'enforced' bus gate, when in operation, at the junction with Regent
Street?

 

Vehicles making these turns and passing the restriction at Gell Street,
during its hours of operation, would be committing an offence.

 

They would not be contravening the gate at Regent Street.

 

 

Q6: Can you confirm that all penalty charge notices issued by Sheffield
City Council, to motorists, on Glossop Road, for bus gate violations, are
for non-exempt vehicles contravening the restrictions and driving straight
through this particular 'enforced' bus gate, at the junction with Regent
Street and at no other point?

 

Penalty charge notices have only have been issued to vehicles that the
Council believe are non-exempt vehicles, driving on Glossop Road and
passing the gate signs. Currently, CCTV enforcement resulting in bus lane
penalty charge notices is in operation for the bus gate immediately after
the Regent Street junction. Previous enforcement resulting in bus lane
penalty charge notices has been carried out for the bus gate near Gell
Street.

 

On occasion, penalty charge notices have been issued to exempt vehicles
(for example to PHV vehicles which are not yet on our exemption lists).
Drivers of such vehicles have the opportunity to make representations once
the penalty charge notice has been issued.

 

If you have any queries about this response, please do not hesitate to
contact us.

 

If you are unhappy with the response you have received in relation to your
request, you are entitled to have this reviewed.  You can ask for an
internal review by either writing to the above address or by emailing
[3][Sheffield City Council request email].  Internal review requests should be submitted
within 40 working days from the date of this response.

 

If you remain dissatisfied with the outcome of your internal review, you
can contact the Information Commissioners Office. The Information
Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, telephone 0303
123 1113, or for further details see their website [4]www.ico.org.uk

 

Kind Regards,

 

Sheffield City Council

PO Box 1283

Sheffield, S1 1UJ

Email: [5][Sheffield City Council request email]

P Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to

 

 

 

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Dear Sheffield City Council,

Thank you for your response to my request for information relating to the bus gates on Glossop Road and the road signage on Cavendish Street.

Please could you clarify the following:

Your answer to Q1:
Please could you confirm whether this bus gate is currently being enforced by cameras by Sheffield City Council - Yes or No?

Your response and answer to Q4:
You have stated that the map style direction sign on Cavendish Street is correct.

I am aware that the distance shown on the sign on Cavendish Street, is taken from the junction with Glossop Road, to the bus gate restriction and not from where the sign is positioned.

I wish to point out that there is an identical or similar sign on Victoria Street (South), which depicts the bus gate restriction to the left at the junction with Glossop Road, at the same distance as the Cavendish Street sign ie 60 yds - both signs cannot be correct.

The Victoria Street sign is correct, but the Cavendish Street sign is incorrect, as it is approximately 40 yds further away from the bus gate restriction, at its junction with Glossop Road.

This could be argued that the sign is confusing.

Therefore, as I have now alerted you to this signage error and given you a reasoned explanation as to why I believe it is showing an incorrect distance, will Sheffield City Council now correct this?

Answer to Q5:
You state the vehicles making the turns I describe and passing the restriction after Gell Street, during its hours of operation, would be committing an 'offence'.

Can you confirm that although this may be or is the case, vehicles contravening the restrictions at this bus gate would not at present be issued with a penalty charge notice by Sheffield City Council?

Many thanks for the time you have taken in answering my request for information.

Your initial response I felt was not fully clear.

Yours sincerely,

David Blythen

FOI, Sheffield City Council

Link: [1]File-List

Dear David Blythen

 

Thank you for your recent request for an internal review relating to Bus
gates and road signage which we received on 19/08/2019. We are sorry to
hear that you are not happy with your response.

 

This has now been logged and will be carried out by a member of the team

 

You should expect to hear a response from us by 17/09/2019.

 

In the meantime, if you have any queries please, contact us at the email
address below.

 

Thank you.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Sheffield City Council

PO Box 1283

Sheffield, S1 1UJ

Email: [2][Sheffield City Council request email]

P Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to

 

 

 

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Dear Sheffield City Council,

I wish to update you with further details in relation to the map style direction sign on Cavendish Street, which is showing an incorrect distance to the bus lane restriction near to the junction with Upper Hanover Street - ie 60 yds instead of at least 100 yds.

You may be aware or not that there is another map style direction sign, which I have only recently become aware of, sited on Glossop Rd, at the junction with Cavendish Street depicting the same error.

The distances to the bus lane restriction near to the junction with Upper Hanover Street on both signs require altering, as they both are incorrectly showing the same incorrect distance of 60 yds.

The distance to the bus lane restriction near to the junction with Upper Hanover Street is approximately 100 yds for both these two signs or slightly more.

Finally, I wish to advise you that I did not ask for an 'internal review' on 19/08/2019; I simply asked for clarification on your responses to a number of my questions to you and to advise you that you were incorrect in suggesting that the map style direction sign on Cavendish Street was correct.

A simple check by Sheffield City Council within the timescale the Freedom of Information Act gives you in responding to my request, would have found that the sign is in fact incorrect.

I asked for clarification because I felt that your responses to Q1 and Q5 were not fully clear and I wished to inform you also that your response to Q4 - re the Cavendish Street map style direction sign was incorrect.

I wish to remind you that by law, public authorities must respond “promptly” to requests.

Yours sincerely,

David Blythen

FOI, Sheffield City Council

Dear David Blythen,
 
I am writing regarding the clarification you requested of FOI/663.  We
received your request on 19/08/2019 and we endeavour to provide a response
to internal reviews within 20 working days. We note that you were looking
for clarification to elements of the response rather than an internal
review. However, we have chosen to put this through the internal review
process to formally log your clarification enquiry and to review whether
the response provided fulfilled the original request.
 
In your request, you specifically asked for the following information:
 
- Q1: Could you confirm whether this particular bus gate is enforced by
cameras or not?
- Q2: If the bus gate is not enforced by cameras, are you able to advise
me what the purpose of the said camera is, on Glossop Rd with Gell Street
facing towards this bus gate?
- Q3: If the bus gate is not enforced by cameras, can you confirm that no
penalty charge notices have ever been issued by Sheffield City Council to
motorists driving through this particular bus gate?
 
Re Cavendish Street road signage:
- I wish to advise you, that the sign sited on Cavendish Street with the
junction with Glossop Road, stating that the bus gate at the left turn
with Glossop Road is 60 yds. ahead, appears to be incorrect. I believe it
is approximately 100 yds.
- Q4: Will you correct this sign, if found to be incorrect?
 
Vehicles turning into Glossop Road:
- I wish to also enquire with regard to vehicles turning towards this bus
gate, at the following junctions with Glossop Road?:
- Cavendish Street left turn
- Regent Terrace right turn
- Victoria Street (South) left turn
- Victoria Street (North) right turn
Q5: Would vehicles performing the above stated manoeuvres, be contravening
the 'enforced' bus gate, when in operation, at the junction with Regent
Street?
Q6: Can you confirm that all penalty charge notices issued by Sheffield
City Council, to motorists, on Glossop Road, for bus gate violations, are
for non-exempt vehicles contravening the restrictions and driving straight
through this particular 'enforced' bus gate, at the junction with Regent
Street and at no other point?
 
I have carried out an Internal Review of the handling of your request.
 
The intention of an internal review is to consider if we handled your
response in accordance with the law and to consider if any decisions made,
for example to refuse information, were correct and still apply.
 
Firstly Section 10 of the Freedom of Information Act states that Sheffield
City Council must respond to requests made under the Freedom of
Information Act within 20 working days of receipt.  In this case, your
request was received by Sheffield City Council on 29/07/2019 and was
responded to on 16/08/2019. This response was provided within 20 working
days, therefore, I am satisfied that Section 10 of the Freedom of
Information Act was correctly complied with in this case.
 
You asked for clarification on the following:
 
Please could you clarify the following:
 
Your answer to Q1:
Please could you confirm whether this bus gate is currently being enforced
by cameras by Sheffield City Council - Yes or No?
 
Your response and answer to Q4:
You have stated that the map style direction sign on Cavendish Street is
correct.
 
I am aware that the distance shown on the sign on Cavendish Street, is
taken from the junction with Glossop Road, to the bus gate restriction and
not from where the sign is positioned.
 
I wish to point out that there is an identical or similar sign on Victoria
Street (South), which depicts the bus gate restriction to the left at the
junction with Glossop Road, at the same distance as the Cavendish Street
sign ie 60 yds - both signs cannot be correct.
 
The Victoria Street sign is correct, but the Cavendish Street sign is
incorrect, as it is approximately 40 yds further away from the bus gate
restriction, at its junction with Glossop Road.
 
This could be argued that the sign is confusing.
 
Therefore, as I have now alerted you to this signage error and given you a
reasoned explanation as to why I believe it is showing an incorrect
distance, will Sheffield City Council now correct this?
 
Answer to Q5:
You state the vehicles making the turns I describe and passing the
restriction after Gell Street, during its hours of operation, would be
committing an 'offence'.
 
Can you confirm that although this may be or is the case, vehicles
contravening the restrictions at this bus gate would not at present be
issued with a penalty charge notice by Sheffield City Council?
 
Many thanks for the time you have taken in answering my request for
information.
 
Your initial response I felt was not fully clear.
 
Please see the following response provided by the Transport service:
 
Your answer to Q1:
Please could you confirm whether this bus gate is currently being enforced
by cameras by Sheffield City Council - Yes or No?
 
This gate is not currently being enforced by camera. We no longer use the
enforcement system that was linked to the camera that was previously used
to issue PCNs to vehicles contravening this bus gate. However,  we do have
the option to relocate other cameras (linked to our new enforcement
software) to different bus lanes / gates.  As such, enforcement could take
place again at a future date. There is signage in place showing the
restriction which applies and that camera enforcement can be undertaken.
The police may also issue fixed penalty notices to vehicles they see being
driven through restricted bus lane or gate.
 
Your response and answer to Q4:
You have stated that the map style direction sign on Cavendish Street is
correct.
 
I am aware that the distance shown on the sign on Cavendish Street, is
taken from the junction with Glossop Road, to the bus gate restriction and
not from where the sign is positioned.
 
I wish to point out that there is an identical or similar sign on Victoria
Street (South), which depicts the bus gate restriction to the left at the
junction with Glossop Road, at the same distance as the Cavendish Street
sign ie 60 yds - both signs cannot be correct.
 
The Victoria Street sign is correct, but the Cavendish Street sign is
incorrect, as it is approximately 40 yds further away from the bus gate
restriction, at its junction with Glossop Road.
 
This could be argued that the sign is confusing.
 
Therefore, as I have now alerted you to this signage error and given you a
reasoned explanation as to why I believe it is showing an incorrect
distance, will Sheffield City Council now correct this?
 
The sign immediately beyond the junction with Cavendish Street depicts a
junction and 60yds beyond the junction a bus gate. This sign does not show
the Cavendish Street junction but the Victoria Street junction. Direction
signs are placed in advance of the junction ahead to allow drivers to read
the sign, understand what it is saying and take the appropriate action
safely.
 
There are limitations with the signing system as signs must be placed so
that they fit into the road layout.
 
However, the sign does convey two messages: firstly, that there is a bus
gate ahead and secondly, the direction drivers should take to avoid going
through the gate.
 
Sheffield City Council will not be changing the sign. You should note that
these signs are not. If the gate was 70yds beyond the Victoria Street
junction, that would not render the gate unenforceable.
 
Answer to Q5:
You state the vehicles making the turns I describe and passing the
restriction after Gell Street, during its hours of operation, would be
committing an 'offence'.
 
Can you confirm that although this may be or is the case, vehicles
contravening the restrictions at this bus gate would not at present be
issued with a penalty charge notice by Sheffield City Council?
 
Please see the response provided to Q1 above.  At this moment in time, the
camera is not being used to enforce the bus gate at Gell Street and
therefore no Penalty Charge Notices are being issued. However, this is a
restriction covered by a Traffic Regulation Order and the location has a
working camera installed that can be used to undertake enforcement
activity from time to time.
 
Please note that the above is further clarification to your original
request. I do uphold that the Transport service could have been clearer in
explaining the enforcement cameras and hope this now satisfies your
request. Please note, any specific issue you hold with the bus gate signs
will need to be directed to the Transport service
([1][email address]).
 
If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of your internal review, you are
entitled to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office and they will
consider whether your complaint is eligible for further review. The
Information Commissioner’s details and guidance is available on the
website at [2]www.ico.org.uk.
 
Kind regards,
Holly
 
Holly McCready
Access to Information Officer
Information Management Team
Business Change and Information Solutions (BCIS)
Resources Portfolio, Sheffield City Council
Email: [3][email address]
Postal Address: Sheffield City Council,  PO Box 1283, Sheffield S1 1UJ
 
 

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Dear Sheffield City Council,

Thank you for your reply to my request for clarification.

You mention in your response the "Transport service".

Would that be the Department for Transport or DfT?

Please could you respond promptly to this final query, as my request for information has taken a lengthy time to complete.

Yours sincerely,

David Blythen

FOI, Sheffield City Council

Hi David,

This will be the Transport service within Sheffield City Council. They can be contacted at [email address].

Kind regards
Holly

Holly McCready
Access to Information Officer
Information Management Team
Business Change and Information Solutions (BCIS)
Resources Portfolio, Sheffield City Council
Email: [email address]
Postal Address: Sheffield City Council, PO Box 1283, Sheffield S1 1UJ

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Gadawodd Richard Taylor anodiad ()

The email address provided was

transport att sheffield.gov.uk

--
Richard, WhatDoTheyKnow.com volunteer

Richard,

Many thanks,

David Blythen

Gadawodd David Blythen anodiad ()

Following on from Sheffield City Council's response to my freedom of information request and, in particular, in relation to their comments that:

"The [bus] gate can also be enforced by the police"

and

"The police may also issue fixed penalty notices to vehicles they see being driven through restricted bus lane or gate"

I have made contact with South Yorkshire Police (SYP) on this matter via a freedom of information request here: -

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/f...

Their response to the following question:

How many fixed penalty notices (if any) has South Yorkshire Police issued to motorists
driving in or through restricted bus lanes, gates and tram gates in Sheffield, so far this year
(2019) and previous years: 2018, 2017 and 2016?

was:

RESPONSE
"I approached our Data Researched and Systems Administrator within our Ticket Processing
Unit for assistance with your request. He has advised the following:

The short answer is NIL. Bus lanes etc. in Sheffield are enforced by the local Authority.

In essence our formal response to your request is one of ‘no information held’."

So, in summary, according to South Yorkshire Police, bus lanes etc are enforced by the Council and not by the police.