If you do not pay a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) within 28 days (of receiving it) we will send the registered owner of the vehicle a 'Notice to Owner' letter asking for full payment. The registered keeper will have the option to either pay the full penalty of £70/£50 or to make a formal statutory challenge to the Council.

• If the challenge is successful, the Council will cancel PCN.

If the Council rejects the challenge and registered vehicle owner still wishes to dispute the PCN they can appeal (see below) to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.

Find out more from the Traffic Penalty Tribunal website. The Traffic Penalty Tribunal operates independently of councils and motorists. Click here for a PCN flowchart (76KB - pdf help).

Decisions made by a TPT adjudicator are usually binding on both parties. The grounds on which an Adjudicator’s decision may be challenged are limited. Simply being unhappy with the decision is not grounds for a challenge. A review of the decision may be granted if, for example, it is believed that an Adjudicator may have wrongly interpreted or applied the law or if new evidence has come to light, the existence of which could not have been anticipated at the time of the original decision. Such cases are extremely rare, and either party must apply for a review within 14 days of receiving the Adjudicator’s written decision.

Costs are seldom awarded and the sums involved are modest. Costs may be awarded only if the Adjudicator decides that a party has behaved frivolously, vexatiously or wholly unreasonably. The Adjudicator has the power to consider an application for costs from either party.

If left unpaid, a PCN can lead to a civil debt which is registered at the Traffic Enforcement Centre(TEC) (Northampton County Court) and these do have a legal significance.

• A charge certificate will be filed with TEC and the penalty charge cost increases by a further 50% to £75 / £105, plus a filing fee currently £5.
• 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.
• Bailiffs will be appointed to recover the outstanding debt on behalf of the local authority.
• Additional bailiff costs may be added to the total sum due.

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.  f 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