Penalty Charge Notices

Parking tickets, properly known as Penalty Charge Notices, are issued for a number of different parking contraventions.

If you are issued with a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) you have 28 days to pay or challenge it.

The cost of a PCN is either £50 or £70, depending on the contravention. These charges are agreed by the Secretary of State for Transport.

Payments made within 14 days of the date on which the PCN is served will have a 50 per cent discount applied.

The Civil Enforcement Officer (CEO) who issues your ticket can explain why you are being given it, although they have no authority to cancel it after it has been issued.

If you believe a ticket has been wrongly issued, for example if you have a valid parking permit or exemption to make a delivery, you can challenge the PCN.

Challenge a Penalty Charge Notice

If we receive a written or emailed challenge within 28 days of issuing the PCN, we will put your case on hold.

If your challenge is made within 14 days but is rejected, we will generally extend the period within which the reduced payment may be paid.

Investigating challenges

The parking enforcement services team investigate, consider and answer any challenges made about a PCN. They consider each challenge on its own merits and are able to exercise discretionary powers in certain circumstances.

They may cancel a PCN where they consider it was wrongly issued or where they are satisfied that an exempt activity was taking place but was not observed by the CEO.

They also exercise discretion and may cancel a PCN where there are acceptable mitigating circumstances such as a genuine medical emergency or an unforeseen and unavoidable vehicle breakdown.

Authority

Where a PCN is issued for a contravention in an off-street car park, the enforcement authority is Cambridge City Council.

In all other cases the enforcement authority is Cambridgeshire County Council, with the city council acting as its agents.

How to pay a Penalty Charge Notice

There are a number of ways you can pay your PCN. You can use your debit or credit card to pay:

• online (one day after the PCN has been issued) using our secure online payments service
• using our automated telephone service (one day after the PCN has been issued) on 01223 457779
• by telephoning the parking team on 01223 458500 (Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm)
• in person at the customer service centre at Mandela House on Regent Street (Monday to Friday, 8am-6pm). You can also pay by cash or cheque
• by post, making a cheque payable to Cambridge City Council, to Parking Enforcement Services, Cambridge City Council, PO Box 135, Cambridge CB1 2WU. Please do not send cash

Unpaid and unchallenged Penalty Charge Notices

If the penalty charge is not successfully challenged or paid on or before the end of the 28 day period as specified on the front of the PCN, the Enforcement Authority may serve a Notice to Owner (NtO) on the person who appears to them to be the owner of the vehicle requiring payment of the penalty charge. The owner can then make representations to the Enforcement Authority and may appeal to an independent adjudicator (The Traffic Penalty Tribunal) if those representations are rejected. If a NtO is served notwithstanding those initial challenges to the PCN, further representation against the PCN must be made in the form and manner and at the time specified in the NtO.

Late Notice to Owner response

Representations should be made not later than the last day of the period of 28 days beginning with the date on which the NtO is served and any representations which are made outside that period may be disregarded. If you submit your representations late, you should explain why. We will not generally accept representations made beyond this time period; rare exceptions could include those instances where we are satisfied that circumstances beyond the recipients control may have prevented them from knowing earlier about the existence of the Notice to Owner/and or being able to respond within the permitted time period.

In any event we may disregard any notice received 84 days or more from the date of service of the notice, regardless of the stated circumstances.

The statutory or specified grounds on which representations may be made are set out below together with an indication of the information which you should supply in support of your representations. It is important to provide all relevant information. You should tick the relevant boxes and write your reasons in the boxes provided. The Notice will be cancelled if one or more of the specified grounds is accepted. The Notice may be cancelled for other compelling reasons even if none of the specified grounds apply. If the Notice is cancelled any sums already paid will be refunded.

If your representations are received in time or are received late but are taken into account, the Parking Enforcement Services Team will let you know its decision in writing not later than the last day of the period of 56 days beginning with the date on which your representation was served on it. If it fails to do so, the Notice will be cancelled and any sums already paid will be refunded. If your representations are rejected, you have the right to appeal against that decision to an independent Adjudicator. An appeal form will be sent with the letter rejecting your representations. The form will explain how and when to appeal to the adjudicator.

The Parking Enforcement Services policies about enforcement, challenges and appeals, late representations and/or representations not covered by the statutory grounds can be found on www.cambridge.gov.uk/parking.

Further information about Civil Parking Enforcement (including PCNs and NtOs) is also available online at www.patrol-uk.info

The specified grounds

• The alleged contravention did not occur
• I was never the owner of the vehicle in question
• I had ceased to be its owner before the date on which the alleged contravention occurred
• I became its owner after the date on which the alleged contravention occurred
• The vehicle had been permitted to remain at rest in the place in question by a person who was in control of the vehicle without the consent of the owner
• We are a vehicle-hire firm and the vehicle was on hire under a hiring agreement and the hirer had signed a statement acknowledging liability for any PCN issued during the hiring period
• The penalty charge exceeded the amount applicable in the circumstances of the case
• There has been a procedural impropriety by the enforcement authority
• The Order which is alleged to have been contravened in relation to the vehicle concerned is invalid
• This Notice should not have been served because the penalty charge had already been paid:
  • in full
  • at the discounted rate and within the time specified in paragraph 1(h) of the Schedule to the Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (England) General Regulations 2007

Notice to Owner returned with 'other grounds'

If there are any other reasons why you consider the Enforcement Authority should cancel the penalty charge notice and refund any sum already paid please tick this box and set out those reasons in full.

While there are no formal stipulated or specifically prescribed laid down grounds for completing this box we will consider any additional relevant information provided in the following circumstances:

• Where it can be shown to our satisfaction that our enforcement action may have been discriminatory/not even-handed
• Where there are genuine, proven and compelling medical circumstances that can be demonstrated to have contributed to the parking contravention occurring in the first instance or perhaps going unnoticed
• Where some other wholly unforeseen event/situation of a necessary and/or emergency nature can be demonstrated to have contributed to the parking contravention occurring in the first instance or perhaps going unnoticed

In any event we will require acceptable documentary evidence to support the 'other grounds'.

Consequences of unpaid Penalty Charge Notices

If the penalty charge is not successfully challenged or paid on or before the end of the 28 day period as specified on the NtO, the enforcement authority may increase the original penalty charge by 50% and take steps to enforce payment. All right to appeal is normally lost and a Charge Certificate will be sent.

14 days after this the charge will be registered as a debt with the Traffic Enforcement Centre County Court at an additional cost of £5.00 and documents confirming this will be sent.

After a further 21 days without payment a warrant may be issued to Certificated Bailiffs for the recovery of the whole amount, in addition to their own fees which may be significant.

Bailiff's visits and payments

Once the debt has been passed to Bailiffs, the enforcement authority (Cambridge City Council) do not usually enter into further correspondence. All communications should normally be addressed to the Bailiff company or, in the case of serious complaints or statements of truth, the County Court.