Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) or Fines

Under the Traffic Management Act 2004, fines are currently set at £70 or £50 (depending on the contravention), but these are reduced by 50% to £35 or £25 if paid within 14 days of the issue of the PCN. Click here for a PCN flowchart (76KB - pdf help)

If you wish to pay a fine online then visit the relevant District Council's website.

Motorists are able to challenge a penalty charge if they believe it has been issued incorrectly by contacting the local authority where the PCN was issued.  All challenges must be made in writing, emails are acceptable, and details of where to write to or how and where to pay, can be found on the rear of the PCN document.

• If the penalty charge remains unpaid, after the relevant time and appeal processes, it becomes a civil debt due to the authority and enforceable through a streamlined version of the normal civil debt recovery process in the County Court.

All revenue received from fines may only be used to fund the cost of providing the parking enforcement system, any surplus revenues along with the money raised from the on-street pay and display tickets goes towards funding local transportation improvements or initiatives and supporting local transport services, such as taxi or rural bus schemes.

Endorsable parking offences (broadly those involving dangerous or obstructive parking) and some other parking offences e.g. zigzag markings which remain criminal can only be enforced by the Police.

• One of the major differences between police enforcement and civil enforcement is how appeals are dealt with. An appeal to a traffic warden issued fixed penalty notice was heard before a local magistrate in a legal court.
• A PCN issued by a CEO is for a believed contravention of an order, and is a civil matter, not a breach of the law.
• Traffic Wardens had to demonstrate when a fixed penalty notice was issued that all legalities regarding the Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) and the road and signs markings fully complied with all regulations.
• CEO’s must demonstrate reasonable grounds to believe the motorist had committed a contravention of a TRO. The Independent Adjudicators do not consider minor errors such as missing T bars at the end of yellow lines, or small breaks in road markings as sufficient grounds to uphold an appeal. Adjudicators focus on whether there are reasonable grounds for the motorist to claim to have been misled or confused by unclear markings or signs, when making their rulings on individual cases.
• Every appeal is carefully considered on the evidence gathered at the time of issue and subsequently submitted by the appellant. Any decision made relates solely to the circumstances in that particular case at the time the PCN was issued and the evidence supplied. The decision reached does not always set a precedent for other PCN’s issued at the same location with similar grounds for appeal

How To Challenge a Penalty Charge Notice.

Any data collected through the issuing of a PCN will be used for the enforcement of parking contraventions and other associated purposes. This data may also be disclosed to other enforcement agencies for the purposes of this enforcement. It may also be disclosed to other departments within the District Council, Devon County Council or external parties for related purposes or as required by law.  All processing of this data will be in accordance with the UK Data Protection Act 1998. If you wish to access your personal information please contact the issuing District Council Information Governance or Data Protection Team.

For information held by Devon County Council contact dpoffice@devon.gov.uk