Parking Fines, Penalty Notices and Appeals

This page collects Motoring Chronicle’s reporting and how-to guides on parking fines in the UK: private parking charges, council penalty charge notices, bus lane and camera fines, and how appeals to POPLA and the Traffic Penalty Tribunal have gone. Each article states the figures it relies on and where they come from. Our standards for sourcing and corrections are in the Editorial Policy and the Corrections Policy.

Start here: how to appeal

• How to Appeal a Parking Fine (and Actually Win Your Case)
• POPLA Cancelled Over Half of a Record 107,000 Parking Fines (and How to Win Your Own Appeal)

Private parking charges and POPLA

• POPLA Cancelled Nearly Half of 107,000 Parking Fines UK Drivers Challenged
• POPLA Saved UK Drivers £5.4 Million in Cancelled Parking Charges Last Year
• Private Parking Firms Dropped 40,000 Fines Rather Than Risk Losing a Formal Appeal
• Every UK Driver Gets a £100 Cap on Private Parking Fines This October
• What the BPA’s New £100 Parking Fine Cap Means for Every UK Driver
• Every Driver Gets Five Minutes Grace as Government Freezes Parking Charges at £100
• Every Driver Would Get 10 Minutes of Grace Under the Government Parking Code
• Why Private Parking Firms Have Until December to Follow Their Own New Rules
• Every Driver Risks Fines From Parking Firms as 40% Fail DVLA Data Audit
• What DVLA Makes Parking Firms Prove Before Handing Over Your Address for £2.50
• Private Parking Firms Made a Record 12.8 Million DVLA Requests Last Year
• How Five Parking Firms Got Your Details From the DVLA 7.2 Million Times Last Year
• Private Parking Firms Hit a Record 16.9 Million Tickets as Watchdog Steps In

Council penalty notices and the Traffic Penalty Tribunal

• London Drivers Won 48.9 Percent of Tribunal Appeals as Penalty Notices Passed 10 Million
• What the Traffic Penalty Tribunal’s 33 Percent Success Rate Means for Every Driver
• Enforcers Did Not Contest 4,831 Fines Drivers Won at the Traffic Penalty Tribunal
• Why 45 Percent of Clean Air Zone Fines Are Overturned by Britain’s Parking Tribunal
• Traffic Penalty Tribunal Data Shows Moving Traffic Appeals Jumped 131 Percent
• Westminster Rejects Most Parking Appeals While Raising £68 Million a Year
• Councils Never Contested Most of the Parking Tickets They Lost on Appeal
• Dundee Council Issued 28,667 Parking Tickets and Lost 3,252 of the 6,205 Appeals
• Ombudsman Closed Nine of Ten Latest Parking Fine Complaints After Initial Enquiries Only
• Why Paying a £35 Surrey Parking Fine Closed the Door on an Ombudsman Complaint

Bus lanes and enforcement cameras

• East Sussex Cancelled 1,793 Telscombe Cliffs Bus Lane Fines After Drivers Challenged 76 Percent
• Swindon Council Issued 23,898 Bus Lane Fines, Up 29.8 Percent, at £70 Each
• Sheffield Council Issued 88,577 Bus Lane Fines to Drivers and Cancelled 83 Percent More
• How Bus Lane Cameras Earned Councils £37.7 Million by Fining UK Drivers This Year
• Why Bus Lane Cameras Earned UK Councils Millions in Fines This Year
• UK Councils Fined Drivers £37.7 Million for Bus Lane Mistakes in Six Months
• More Councils in England Are Switching On ANPR Cameras That Fine Drivers £70
• Bradford Is Signing Off 13 ANPR Cameras to Fine Drivers at Yellow Box Junctions and Banned Turn Points

Bailiffs and unpaid fines

• Every UK Driver Now Risks a £442 Bailiff Bill Over One Unpaid Parking Fine
• Bailiffs Can Now Charge Almost £1,350 to Chase a Single Unpaid Parking Fine

Rules and changes to parking enforcement

• What DfT’s January 2027 Pavement Parking Ticket Plan Means for Every Driver
• DfT Confirms New Powers to Let English Councils Ban Pavement Parking
• Every Disabled Bay Without a Council Traffic Order Is Unenforceable, DfT Guidance Says

Where council parking money goes

• Drivers Handed Councils a £993 Million Kerbside Parking Surplus as Penalty Notices Hit £899 Million
• English Councils Banked a Record £1.1 Billion From Every Driver’s Parking Fines Last Year
• Westminster Made £90.6 Million From Parking As English Councils Banked £1.1 Billion
• East Suffolk Council Used £1.1 Million of Car Park Fees to Cover Street Enforcement
• South Essex Drivers Got 56,805 Parking Tickets, Up 18.5 Percent, Leaving a £287,929 Surplus
• Newcastle Drivers Paid £3.7 Million in Parking Enforcement as Council Income Jumps 23 Percent
• Coventry Drivers Paid £5.4 Million in Parking Charges as Council Surplus Jumps 80 Percent