Can someone point me in the direction of the rules about what constitutes a legal plate? I’ve had a look on DVLA and can’t see it.
Basically I am looking for what size the letters and numbers should be. I reckon if they are too big they will not have the correct spacing between them and around the boarder.
wasnt it in MCM or Two this month about the correct sizes…will try to find out…but they dont have to be as large as a cr and they should (i think ) be on two lines for whatever reason I cant explain…
According to the copper who took it upon himself to fine me for an illegal plate on Saturday, the only ones that are legal are those with the name of the place the plate is from on it and a kitemark. According to him, the 7 x 5 is also illegal. 
I want to know specifically how much size around the boarder there should be as I’ve had one made and the letters and number are huge and it looks ****. I can’t see them giving me a rufund unless I can produce something to show them it looks completely wrong. In fact I think it is just a total loss as it looks so crap I am not going to put it on my bike 
It has to be made by a registered maker of plates and if they have made one that is not to the legal specification I am sure you would haeve come back on them. The law requires the plate to meet the relevant British Standard - the standard requires the name and postcode of the supplier to be on the plate. The DVLA leaflet with the rules is here -
Thanks for that. I’ve got a stick to go and poke them with now. See what they say… probably got nothing from it I expect but it really is just rubbish. That is what you get for going to an auto parts shop. The sign said ‘plates while you wait’. I should have known it was sus when he said cars only, for motorcycles come back in about 1.30 hours. I think they made it up at a sign writting company just down the road.
And here…
http://www.dvla.gov.uk/media/pdf/leaflets/displayofnumberplates.pdf
Confirms there are no legal requirements for size of plate, just for size of digits, space between them and margins aroud them - which I suppose pretty much dictates size of plate anyway.
Well I took it back to the bloke and he had a long chat with his supplier on the phone. I didn’t like how fat the letters and numbers were. They looked wider and more chunky then the standard 44mm and were squeezed into the plate so it didn’t quite have an 11mm margine around the outside. There wasn’t much in it really, about 8mm on the left. The gaps were a little smaller. No boarder or logo on it. I had another plate made up at West London Yamaha, but their plate is slightly wider then 9" so there is plenty of width around the margine. It just looks better as it has the dealer logo and also has a boarder round it. The guy was as good as gold, he gave me a full refund. I wasn’t really expecting it. The best I had hoped for was a few quid back towards the other plate. Lovely chap, kind of restored my faith that there really are some nice people out there.
Your looking for a form V796. Stick in in Google it comes up.
did you read that article on the DVLA web site, where it says 1 line number plates are illegal…anyone profer a logial reason why or is it pure governmental idiocy at work yet again…
It’s probably to do with the reportedly 40,000 cloned plates in the U.K, either because of stolen vehicles or for the congestion charge dodgers (that doesn’t work anyway) and the failed attempt to get plates registered to their respective vehicles which only works for the congestion charge which is exempt for motorcycles anyway so is abused by the pawlease targeting motorcycles. So it’s all Kens fault.
All the new number plate regs are for the benefit of the ANPR surveillance cameras. Letterbox plates are just the most difficult for them to read, but that’s also why they’re clamping down on small and non-standard fonts, moving numbers close together to make letters, honeycomb finishes, graphics and all that. That’s also why there’s no legal requirement for the size of a plate; it’s the legibility that’s important for the camera, not the size of the background.
