Dundee Council Issued 28,667 Parking Tickets and Lost 3,252 of the 6,205 Appeals
- Dundee City Council issued 28,667 parking charge notices in 2024-25 and took £1,239,100 in PCN income, according to its Annual Parking Report.
- Drivers appealed 6,205 notices, and 3,252 appeals succeeded, which is 11.3 percent of every notice issued and 52.4 percent of the appeals made.
- Pavement parking, double parking and dropped kerb notices made up 3,178 of the total and brought in £212,350, with the pavement charge set at £100 or £50 if paid within 14 days.
Dundee Cancelled 3,252 Parking Notices After Drivers Appealed
Dundee City Council has published its Annual Parking Report for 2024-25, and the appeals figures stand out from the rest of the document. Out of 28,667 parking charge notices, drivers appealed 6,205, which is 21.6 percent of all notices issued. The report records 3,252 of those appeals as successful. That works out at 11.3 percent of every notice the council issued, a figure the report states itself, and about 52.4 percent of the appeals made, which is this article’s own calculation from the report’s two numbers.
In plain terms, if a Dundee driver appealed a parking notice in 2024-25, the report shows the appeal succeeded a little more often than it failed. The document does not give a breakdown of why appeals succeeded, whether at the council stage or in front of an independent adjudicator, and it contains no figures for earlier years, so there is no way to say from the report alone whether the success rate is rising or falling.
The notices split across two pieces of law. Under the Road Traffic Act 1991 the council issued 25,489 notices, of which 17,658 were on-street and 7,831 were off-street, bringing in £1,026,750. Under the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 it issued another 3,178, bringing in £212,350. Together the two groups produced £1,239,100, a figure the report dates as of 10 June 2025.
Pavement, Double Parking and Dropped Kerb Notices Are Now a Regular Charge
The newer group is the one that catches drivers out. Of the 3,178 notices issued under the 2019 Act, 2,437 were for parking on the pavement, 377 for double parking and 364 for parking at a dropped kerb. The report says pavement parking enforcement began in 2024, and it lists the pavement charge at £100, reduced to £50 if paid within 14 days. It does not give charge levels for double parking or dropped kerbs.
The legal basis is on legislation.gov.uk. Part 6 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 contains the prohibitions: section 50 bans parking on a pavement, section 54 bans double parking, and section 56 bans parking at a dropped footway. The Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 (Commencement No. 7) Regulations 2023 brought these sections into force on 11 December 2023, so the rules were already law before Dundee began issuing notices in 2024.
The Act also carries exceptions. Section 55 covers emergency services, roadworks, waste collection, postal services, urgent medical visits and goods delivery or collection, with limits on how long a vehicle can stay. Section 57 allows parking at a dropped footway for access to a driveway or garage and in an emergency. Local authorities can also make exemption orders for a specified footway under section 51. A driver who meets one of those exceptions has grounds to challenge a notice.
Averaged across the 3,178 notices, the 2019 Act group brought in about £66.82 a notice, between the £50 discounted pavement charge and the £100 full charge. That is the article’s own average, and it mixes the three notice types, so it should be read as a rough guide only.
Where Dundee Drivers Were Ticketed Most
The report lists hotspots by street and by car park. On the street, South Tay Street led with 782 notices, followed by Reform Street with 727, Whitehall Crescent with 725, Commercial Street with 638 and Bank Street with 582. Crichton Street recorded 555, Bell Street 546, Castle Street 514, Greenmarket 436 and Brook Street in Broughty Ferry 412.
Among car parks, Yeaman Shore recorded 1,932 notices and Shore Terrace 1,750. Together those two sites account for 3,682 notices, or 12.8 percent of all the notices the council issued in the year. Hunter Street North followed with 564, East Port with 464, Discovery with 373 and South Tay Street car park with 354.
Off-street notices were 7,831 of the 25,489 issued under the Road Traffic Act, or 30.7 percent. A driver who assumes a council car park is safer than a roadside bay would find the figures do not support that. The two busiest car parks each produced more notices than any single street on the list.
The £5.7 Million Parking Account and What It Shows
Parking notices are one part of a larger account. The report puts total parking income for 2024-25 at £5,741,125.15, including VAT. Cashless parking through JustPark brought in about £1.54 million, pay and display meters £1,420,655.80, multi-storey car parks £1,386,655.36 and notices £1,239,100. Resident permits added £40,749.
Notices made up about 21.6 percent of the total. Cash is still in use: £641,087.50 came from cash at meters, from 348,441 transactions, against £779,568.30 on cards from 181,054 transactions. The report does not say how the money is spent, and it contains no enforcement cost, no surplus figure and no named official, so the document cannot show whether parking pays for itself.
Payment habits in the report are worth a note. At the multi-storey car parks, £1,316,284.00 of the £1,386,655.36 taken was by card, about 95 percent, with just £70,371.36 in cash. At the meters the split is closer, with cash at £641,087.50 and cards at £779,568.30. The cashless service recorded 365,871 sessions in the year. A driver who parks in Dundee without a card or the app has few ways left to pay, and the notices column shows what happens when a payment goes wrong.
The report also has gaps that readers should know about. It carries no publication date, and some tables do not add up exactly, which is why this article uses only the headline totals and the notice counts, and leaves out the monthly ticket figures. Dundee also runs a Low Emission Zone, launched in 2022 with full camera enforcement from 2024, but the report gives no figures for that scheme.
What Drivers Should Do Before They Pay a Dundee Parking Notice
Do not pay straight away if you think the notice is wrong. The report counts 3,252 successful appeals, so a challenge with evidence has a real record. Photograph the sign, the markings and the position of the vehicle, and keep the payment receipt or app confirmation if you paid for the space.
Check which rule the notice cites. A pavement notice is a different matter from a double parking notice, and the Act’s exceptions apply to both. If you were loading, collecting a delivery, or reaching a driveway through a dropped kerb, say so in your challenge and cite the section.
If you decide to pay a pavement parking notice, do it within 14 days to pay £50 rather than £100, as the report lists. Drivers who park in the Yeaman Shore and Shore Terrace car parks, or on South Tay Street and Reform Street, should check the signs with particular care, as the report shows these as the places where most notices were issued.
Ask the council for the figures the report leaves out. A driver who wants to know how often Dundee appeals reach an independent adjudicator, or what the average time to a decision is, can request them from the council in writing. Those numbers would show whether the 3,252 successful appeals were won at the first stage, which costs the driver little, or later, after weeks of letters.
Readers can find related coverage on Derby Council Issued 34,346 Moving Traffic Fines, Up 67 Percent, Costing Up to £70 and DfT Confirms New Powers to Let English Councils Ban Pavement Parking.
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