Understand your parking ticket or PCN

A parking ticket, known as a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) is a fine that you receive for not following parking or moving traffic rules. Not following these rules is known as a contravention.  

You can get a parking ticket, for:

  • parking in a restricted space (for example, on a street with yellow lines) 
  • having not purchased a valid parking session  
  • not following traffic rules, for example going against a ‘no U-turn’ sign or driving in a bus lane  
  • not having a valid parking permit clearly displayed in your vehicle 

If you have received a PCN you can view the photo and video evidence for it online. View evidence for your parking PCN 

Information on your ticket 

All PCN’s show: 

  • the PCN number - use this when you pay, challenge or talk to us about your ticket 
  • details of the vehicle (including registration, which you need to check is correct) 
  • details of the parking or traffic offence (contravention), including: 

          - a description of the offence 

          - the location  

          - the date and time 

  • the full charge amount 
  • a discounted charge amount available for 14 days or 21 days (which is on your PCN) 
  • how you can pay 

The PCN tells you how you can challenge it. 

 

Types of PCN  

Parking PCNs issued by a Civil Enforcement Officer (CEO) 

This means a ticket attached to your vehicle or given to you by a Civil Enforcement Officer (officer, parking warden or traffic warden). 

You’ll get a PCN by post if an officer could not fix a ticket to your vehicle or hand it to you.  

Moving traffic PCNs issued by CCTV  

A parking or traffic offence that was caught on CCTV is called a moving traffic PCN. For example, stopping in a yellow box junction or breaking traffic restrictions while driving.  

You’ll get this PCN in the post.  

Bus lane or bus stop PCNs 

This is issued for driving in bus lanes or stopping at a bus stop.  

You’ll get this PCN in the post.  

 

What you can do about a PCN

You can:

Do not ignore your ticket or letter. You need to pay the fine or challenge it within 28 days of the date it was issued. After this you may have to pay additional charges. 

 

What happens if you do not pay  

Notice to owner or enforcement notice 

When you receive the notice to owner (for on-street parking offences) or enforcement notice (for bus lane offences), you can: 

  • pay the full charge within 28 days 
  • make formal representations to the council 

If you do nothing, a charge certificate will be sent. The charge increases by 50%. 

Charge certificates 

If you ignore the PCN or a notice to owner or enforcement notice, you’ll be sent a charge certificate. This will let you know the cost of the PCN has increased by 50%: 

You’ll have 21 days to pay. There is no right of appeal at this stage. You can no longer make a formal representation against the PCN. 

If you were not aware of the contravention before receiving the charge certificate, or if you received no reply to a representation or an appeal, you’ll have to wait to make a statutory declaration/witness statement. 

Order for recovery 

We then send you an ‘order for recovery’ letter. 

An additional £10 is added to the outstanding amount on the PCN. 

This is the cost for registering the order.  

You have 21 days from the date of service to pay the outstanding amount on the order for recovery. 

If this is not paid, the case will progress to the Traffic and Enforcement Centre (TEC) at Northampton County Court and they will register the amount you owe as a debt. 

If you believe you have a reason to not pay the charge on the one of the statutory grounds, the letter will tell you how to make a statutory declaration/witness statement to the court. You can contact the Traffic Enforcement Centre by calling 0300 123 1059 if you have an enquiry about this stage of the process. 

Warrant of control (enforcement agents) 

If you do not pay the PCN for another 21 days after you receive the order of recovery letter, we may ask the Traffic Enforcement Centre for a warrant of control.  

The case is then passed to an enforcement agent (bailiff) to recover what you owe. 

If you have been contacted about a PCN that you did not know about, or thought was paid or cancelled, you may contact the Traffic Enforcement Centre requesting an out-of-time witness statement. Once notification has been received from Traffic Enforcement Centre, the enforcement agent will be put on hold temporarily. 

A certified enforcement agent is allowed to charge recovery fees for every letter, visit and action taken. Recovery actions are taken on our behalf by these enforcement agents: