1. How many times in the past 3 years has Devon County Council accepted a parking appeal on the grounds that the person in contravention made an error in submitting the wrong details about their vehicle when making payment?
Devon County Council believes compliance with this request would exceed the appropriate costs limit under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which is £450 or 18 hours of officer time.
This is because we would need to review the information we hold to extract relevant information. We estimate that it would take 4 minutes to review each Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) case.
In 19/20 – 2,324 PCNs were issued across Devon. At 4 minutes per case, this would take in excess of 154 hours.
The basis for our calculations is as follows: 2,234 x 4mins = 9,296 minutes. Divided by 60 = 154.9 hours
In 20/21 – 1,986 PCNs were issued across Devon.
In 21/22 – 8,873 PCNS were issued across Devon.
In 22/23 – 11,194 PCNS have been issued across Devon.
2. What percentage of Informal Challenges are accepted?
3. What percentage of Formal Representations are accepted?
In response to both Q2 and Q3, Devon County Council does not capture or record in specific detail the grounds under which an informal challenge or formal representation is made against a Penalty Charge Notice. To look at individual cases for appeals based on the wrong entry of a registration number or when making a payment would exceed the appropriate cost limit as explained above.
We do publish stats on the number of informal challenges and formal representations received and their outcome in our annual reports which can viewed on our website:
How parking is regulated – Roads and transport (devon.gov.uk)
Reports are available from 2014/15 – 2020/21. The period for 2021/22 is not yet available online.