Received a parking ticket?
This is our step by step guide on what to do if you have received a parking ticket now known as a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) for a parking contravention. If you have received a penalty charge notice for a moving traffic contravention such as a prohibited turn or a yellow box contravention then please see our section on moving traffic contraventions. If you have received a penalty charge notice for a bus lane contravention then we have a dedicated website www.buslanes.com.
If you have received a parking ticket (Penalty Charge Notice) you have two options - either:
1. Accept that you knowingly committed a contravention (offence) and pay the PCN within 14 days in order to receive a 50% discount. If you pay the ticket you will lose your right to appeal and the case will be closed.
OR
2. Make informal or formal representations. For full details on how to appeal and the process of appeal and enforcement, please click here to see our comprehensive section on the appeal process.
Tip! Did you know that up to 20% of all parking tickets are cancelled by the authority upon receipt of a representation? That’s over one million tickets a year cancelled in London alone!
Tip! Although some PCN’s state that you cannot make a representation until you receive what is called a “Notice to Owner” (NTO), we have yet to find a local authority who will not both accept a representation and maintain the discounted rate for a further 14 days if they do not accept your representation, so long as it is received within 14 days of the date of issue. We believe that the wording on some PCN’s puts motorists off from appealing as, of course, the NTO is not sent out until the discount period has expired. We believe that this is wrong but traffic enforcing authorities have little incentive to publicise this as dealing with representations takes resources and of course cancelling PCN’s loses revenue.
Tip! Tickets can be cancelled by local authorities on compassionate grounds.
Tip! If the authority reject your representations and you believe they have done so unfairly then you can still appeal to the parking adjudicator. The parking adjudicator is a free service but if he rejects your appeal you will have to pay your ticket at the full rate
Tip! The odds are still in your favour because on average the parking adjudicator allows 60% of appeals made to him. Against some local authorities he allows over 90% of appeals! In fact, many local authorities don’t even contest a great number of the appeals made against them! Please note the parking adjudicator cannot cancel a PCN on compassionate grounds.
Firstly, please check Statutory grounds for appeal to see what applies to you and then return to this page.
In April 2008 the government issued statutory guidance to all local authorities in England setting out the way in which local authorities should carry out parking enforcement. Some local authorities carry out their parking enforcement against this guidance and therefore their penalty charge notices may well be cancelled on an appeal either to the council or to a parking adjudicator. The statutory guidance covers many aspects of parking enforcement including the use of CCTV parking enforcement signage and controlled parking zones. Click here to check what the guidance says about the contravention you are alleged to have committed and the way in which it was enforced. Then return to this page.
In addition to the information contained in the above links, there is further information and assistance below.
Please also see our summarised adjudicators' decisions.
Please remember that despite the fact that most parking tickets or Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) state that you cannot appeal until a “Notice to owner” (NTO) is sent to you after 28 days, every local authority who we have contacted do accept informal representations if made to them within 14 days. They also preserve the 50% discount for a further 14 days if they reject your representations. So you have nothing to lose by writing in. This does not apply to PCNs issued by post although some councils will accept formal representations within the discount period and re offer the discount if they do not accept what you say.
If you have made an informal representation and the council have rejected it and re-offered the discount, you should not let this dissuade you from making a formal appeal if you think that you have a case. Some councils reject informal representations and hope that you will pay up. However, when you go to the next stage of a formal appeal to the council, they cancel your ticket. Transport for London rejected almost all informal representations but when motorists went to the next stage they accepted over 70%! Of course, if they reject your formal appeal you will lose the discount but then it will cost you nothing to go to the parking adjudicator and the odds really are in your favour, although there are no guarantees.
If you are going to appeal do not make payment until you have heard back from the local authority or the parking adjudicator.
If you are going to appeal you can usually do so by post, email and in some cases by phone. (If you cannot persuade the person you speak to, to cancel your ticket you can still write in.)
Your letter to the enforcing authority
Firstly, you should state the facts and your letter should be no longer than absolutely necessary. You should remember that the person who reads your letter may well have discretion to cancel your PCN. It may not be helpful therefore to vent your anger or make threats. You should place yourself in the position of the person who will be reading your letter. Photographs, diagrams, witness statements, delivery notes, pay and display tickets etc. can be extremely helpful. Many motorists carry a disposable camera in their car, although nowadays many people have camera phones. Always send copies and keep the originals of any attachments. You should also keep a copy of your letter to the council. Also remember to include the date and the number of the PCN in any correspondence.
General checklist
Please note that we offer no guarantee that any appeal you make using information on this website will be successful. Please see the disclaimer at the bottom of each page.
The Penalty Charge Notice (PCN)
1. This is the document that is issued to you for an alleged contravention. It was previously known as a parking ticket. This is the legal document that the enforcing authority must issue and there is very specific wording which must be included by law.(under Section 66(3) of the Road Traffic Act 1991) If the penalty charge notice is defective (and hundreds of thousands have been found to be) then the authority can not legally enforce a against you. Does the PCN comply?
So please check the following.
2. If the PCN has been issued by a CCTV camera there must be included on it full details of where you can view a videotape of it. See Harrow decision in adjudicator’s decisions section. In a case in Harrow in 2009 an appeal was allowed as details of where to view video evidence in respect of a yellow box contravention had been omitted. We believe that this also applies to parking contraventions.
3. There are various statutory grounds of appeal that must clearly be set out on the PCN. These include the words “compelling reasons” Compelling reasons include mitigating circumstances or compassionate grounds that a motorist can use in his defence. In a yellow box junction case in Harrow the words “compelling reasons” were not included on the PCN so the adjudicator found against the council.
4. One of the statutory grounds for appeal is “that the penalty exceeded the amount applicable in the circumstances of the case.” Now there has been an interesting case in Camden in 2009. Camden (and some other local authorities) have decided to charge a percentage fee for payments by credit card. Now by demanding this charge Camden have invalidated their PCNs according to a recent decision by an adjudicator as the penalty exceeded the amount that can legally be charged. In another decision in July 2009, we assisted a motorist who had been ticketed and towed away in Camden, the council were ordered to refund the tow away charge and the PCN amount which had already been paid. See decisions in the adjudicators section below.
5. A penalty charge notice must show the location of the contravention. Sometimes the location stated is too vague as for example in Green Lane, North London, a PCN issued at a yellow box junction simply said “Green lane which is a very long road with several yellow box junctions.” The adjudicator found against the council.
6. You may have read recently about penalty charge notices issued by some local authorities being unenforceable because they do not show the “date of issue on the actual ticket. (rather than the tear off section). We understand that they cannot enforce a PCN if the date of issue is not on the actual ticket. There have been many cases but one is Mr S Aldridge v City of Westminster 18th April 2006. Another is Al’s Bar and Restaurant V’s Wandsworth Council. The date of the contravention is not the same as the date of issue even if the 2 dates are the same.
7. Is the wording on the PCN clear as to when payment must be made?
It must say:
(c) that the penalty charge must be paid before the end of the period of 28 days beginning with the date of the notice;
However the Wandsworth issued PCN in the case of Wandsworth Council vs Al’s Bar and Restaurant” was found invalid as it said “You are therefore required to pay the sum of £80 within 28 days.”
The wording on the PCN must say:
(d) that if the penalty charge is paid before the end of the period of 14 days beginning with the date of the notice, the amount of the penalty charge will be reduced by the specified proportion;
The Wandsworth PCN said: “The charge will be reduced to £40 if payment is received within 14 days” and “If payment of the penalty charge notice is received within 14 days of the date of issue(as shown overleaf) the reduced charge will be accepted as settlement.”
The wording on the PCN must say:
(e) that, if the penalty charge is not paid before the end of the 28 day period, a notice to owner may be served by the London authority on the person appearing to them to be the owner of the vehicle;
The Wandsworth PCN said “if no payment is received within 28 days of the date of issue, a notice to owner may be sent to the registered keeper of the vehicle requiring payment.”
The appeal was allowed as was an appeal in a similar circumstance involving Camden council. See adjudicators’ decisions.
A penalty charge notice must state –
(a) the grounds on which the parking attendant believes that a penalty charge is payable with respect to the vehicle;
(b) the amount of the penalty charge which is payable;
(f) the address to which payment of the penalty charge must be sent.
The parking attendant (Civil enforcement officer)
Is the Parking Attendant’s number and signature on the PCN? If not it may be invalid.
Parking attendants must be wearing their uniform, which includes their hat. If you witness them issuing your ticket and they are not wearing their uniform or hats, then the ticket issued may be invalid. Take photographs if possible, if this is not possible you should still appeal. They should also be standing next to your car (not hiding behind a tree on the other side of the road)! .
Parking attendants must also have their ID Number clearly visible, usually on their lapel but sometimes on a card which must be visible. In Westminster in 2008 the civil enforcement officers were issued with new uniforms although the ID numbers are not always visible. They are meant to have a card on display but quite often they do not. You can ask for their ID number and they must provide it. If you see them issuing a PCN and this number is not clearly identifiable, the ticket may well be cancelled. You may wish to take a photo although this could be confrontational.
Was the ticket placed on your windscreen? For a PCN to be legally issued by a parking attendant it must either be placed on your windscreen or handed to the person in charge of the vehicle otherwise it cannot be enforced. However new rules that came in in 2008 state that the PCN does not need to be placed on your windscreen and can be sent by post if the civil enforcement officer has started the process of issuing the penalty charge notice!
Parking attendants can only issue one ticket per vehicle for the same offence in any 24 hour period. However, don’t think you can stay there all day legally as your vehicle can be clamped or removed after the issue of a PCN.
Delays on the part of the enforcing authority
Have the local authority delayed the procedure of enforcing the PCN unnecessarily. Local authorities do have an obligation to act fairly and this includes avoiding unnecessary delays. Normally if there is a delay of over 6 months at any stage in the process your PCN should be cancelled by an adjudicator.
If the PCN is issued by post then it must be received by you within 28 days of the alleged contravention.
Photographs
In some local authority areas parking attendants are issued with digital cameras or have digital cameras integrated into their hand held computers. We suspect that this is to both cut down on fraud and also to provide evidence in the event of a representation or an appeal being made. Westminster council in London issued over 100,000 less parking tickets in the year immediately after equipping their parking attendants with digital cameras. The photographic evidence can also assist a motorist – for example. Does it actually show that a contravention has occurred? Does it show the sign and the road markings that were in situ. In Westminster in Central London two of their civil enforcement officers were caught ticketing cars on a bay with no sign and then taking a picture of a sign on another bay. Also as a penalty charge notice or parking ticket should usually be affixed to the windscreen or handed to the driver does the photograph clearly show the parking ticket on the windscreen? If it does not how can it be proven that it was served correctly? Some local authorities will send you a copy of the photograph on request or you can go to the council offices and view it on their internal system although usually you can view it online.
Traffic management/regulation orders
Before an enforcing authority can commence the enforcement of a parking regulation they must go through a procedure and issue a traffic management/regulation order. We hear that sometimes these contain discrepancies. For example it could be that the length of a yellow line or a parking bay is longer than that stated in the order or the controlled hours are different to that enforced or that there is no order in place for the section of road where you parked or it has been lost by the council! You should ask for a copy and also for the articles and exemptions. In the event that you appeal to the parking adjudicator service they will request a copy as the parking adjudicator will need to see this so he knows the regulations which are in place.
The enforcing authourities protocol
Enforcing authorities will have a protocol stating their policy on enforcement of different offences. For example whether they allow a grace period on a parking metre and if so how long, how long they will observe a vehicle for before issuing a ticket where loading is permitted or how much of a vehicle should be stopped within a yellow box and for how long before a penalty charge notice is issued etc. Some local authorities such as Westminster council in London publish their protocol on the internet. Others may provide a copy on request. We do not know whether a request for a copy under the freedom of information act would succeed but we believe a local authority should be open and in any event how would you know whether the parking attendant or enforcement officer acted within their remit without sight of this. We would suggest that you check the website of the enforcing authority and if their protocol is not published request a copy..
Compassionate grounds
Do not forget that a local authority is able to consider compassionate grounds for cancelling a PCN. If you have checked the other points above and below and they do not assist you then you should write to the local authority citing any compassionate or indeed other grounds upon which you would like them to consider cancelling your PCN.
