How to appeal a parking ticketParking tickets: your rights

There are more than 70 reasons why you could be given a parking ticket. Some of the most common include parking on yellow lines, parking in residents’ parking areas without a permit and not displaying a valid ticket in a pay and display area.

The good news is there are ways of appealing most kinds of parking ticket if it was given unfairly or mistakenly.

Parking ticket enforcement

Depending on where you are, different organisations enforce parking rules and issue parking tickets, including local councils, the police, private companies or Transport for London. 

If you do get a parking ticket, your rights vary depending on who issued it and whether you were parked on the street or in a car park.

On-street parking tickets are issued by either traffic wardens (employed by the police) or parking attendants (employed by the council).

In most parts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and many urban areas of Scotland, most on-street parking is enforced by council-employed parking attendants, who issue Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) through the civil justice system. 

This type of parking enforcement is called Civil Parking Enforcement and council parking attendants are called Civil Enforcement Officers.

Police traffic wardens enforce more serious parking rules, such as Priority or Red Route regulations, by issuing Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) through the criminal justice system.

Enforcement for parking on the street

Most on-street parking is enforced by council-employed parking attendants.

If you're caught breaking parking or waiting rules in an area where decriminalised parking enforcement is in operation, you'll be issued with a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN). 

PCN parking tickets are usually issued by being fixed to the windscreen of the car concerned or handed to the person who appears to be in charge of it. These parking tickets can also be issued by post in places where cameras catch cars breaking the parking rules or when a civil enforcement officer is prevented by a motorist from issuing the parking ticket at the scene, either by driving away or using abusive behaviour.

You will usually have 28 days to either pay the charge or challenge the PCN parking ticket. If you pay within 14 days (21 days for those caught on camera), the amount is reduced by 50%.