I've just received a penalty charge for entering and stopping in the box junction on the Kingston Road, trying to turn right out of Dorset Road.

I have lived in this area for the past sixteen years. Drivers rarely stop before the box junction on the Kingston Road (heading towards the tram crossing), and frequently overlap it on the other side, thereby making it almost impossible to turn right out of Dorset Road, onto the Kingston Road, without entering and stopping in the box junction (especially in the morning rush hours or after 4pm in the afternoon). If you wait too long on Dorset Road the drivers behind you start using their horns.

The Highway Code states: You must not enter the box until your exit road or lane is clear. However, you may enter the box and wait, when you want to turn right, and are only stopped from doing so by oncoming traffic, or by other vehicles waiting to turn right.

I had followed another car into the box junction when we both presumed we would be able to clear the box junction, only to have the lights change for a tram to cross, thereby preventing us both from clearing the box. Therefore I entered the box to wait and was prevented from doing so from the vehicle in front, also turning right.

At no time did I prevent traffic from the opposite direction from being able to pass safely behind me.

I am very surprised at the sudden enforcement of this traffic contravention. Would a sign on Dorset Road have been a little fairer to all of us who turn right out of Dorset Road? Is it not actually impossible to use this box junction correctly when it is so close to the tram crossing and therefore there is almost always a car on it?

It seems to me this is just another of Merton Council’s ‘penny pinching’ strategies which angers its residents.

A very disgruntled and poorer Merton Park resident Based on information supplied by .