Thanks all for the information provided. I have received Tuesday last week the confirmation letter from the Metropolitan Police on the traffic diversion and then on Saturday last week attended the appeal (yes appeal down in London) against the charge raised by the Transport for London. I was told within a few minutes by the the adjudicator (a solicitor) that he would support my appealing.

Looking back the process of the whole case, it took me quite some time to call different bodies and write a few letters (including the last registered one) and a trip down to London from Birmingham. I guess the cost I paid could be well above £60 charge raised (originally was £12).

I could have speeded it up by sending registered letter to the Metropolitan Police directly rather than sending letter to a local police station. If I could receive the confirmation letter within the 21 days specified by the TfL, then I guess that they will accept the representation I've made and cancel the penalty charge. This is something we can do and will do if similar thing happens again (hope not) next time.

On the other hand, the TfL should have established a better link with the police so that the information on some temporary traffic diversion can be recorded once it has been raised, as it was in this case. Hope the TfL can have this point at their wish list in terms of service improvement in the future...

thanks again.