Parking Charge Notice Appeal: Council vs Private (2026)

Check the ticket to find out who issued it, because the two routes do not overlap:

GOV.UK says a PCN issued in England or Wales can be appealed to an independent tribunal, but only after a formal challenge to the council. The England rules for formal representations and appeals are in the Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Representations and Appeals) (England) Regulations 2022. It has three stages:

In England, the grounds for formal representations are that:

• The alleged contravention did not occur
• You never were the owner of the vehicle, had ceased to be its owner before the contravention, or became its owner after it
• The vehicle was in the control of a person who did not have the owner's consent
• You are a vehicle-hire firm and the vehicle was hired under an agreement in which the hirer signed a statement of liability
• The penalty charge exceeded the amount applicable in the circumstances of the case
• There has been a procedural impropriety on the part of the enforcement authority
• The order said to have been contravened is invalid
• The enforcement notice should not have been served because the penalty charge was already paid in full, or was paid at the discounted amount by the applicable date

You can also argue that there are compelling reasons why the council should cancel the charge even if none of those grounds applies, and an adjudicator who does not allow an appeal can recommend cancellation on compelling reasons.

Government guidance says that in most cases a driver who parks in a car park with clear signage setting out the terms and conditions will be deemed to have accepted them, and so entered into a contract to park with the landholder.

A private operator does not automatically know who was driving. Where it does not know the driver's name and address, it can ask the DVLA for the registered keeper's details. Schedule 4 to the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 gives the operator the right to recover unpaid parking charges from the keeper, but only if its conditions are met. These include the time limits for the notice to keeper:

• If no notice was given to the driver at the time, the notice to keeper must be delivered within 14 days beginning with the day after the period of parking ended (paragraph 9)
• If a notice was given to the driver, the notice to keeper must be delivered in the 28 days that follow the 28 days beginning with the day after the notice to driver was given (paragraph 8)
• A notice sent by post is presumed to have been delivered on the second working day after it was posted, unless the contrary is proved
• The notice must contain the information set out in paragraph 8(2) or 9(2), including the unpaid amount, an invitation to pay or to name the driver, and details of any prompt payment discount and how disputes can be resolved
• The right to recover from the keeper may only be exercised after the 28 days beginning with the day on which the notice to keeper is given
• Paragraph 4 does not affect any other remedy the operator may have against the keeper or any other person

• The signs did not set out the terms clearly: government guidance says consumer protection law is relevant to whether the signs were sufficient and the terms fair, and a term shown to be unfair cannot be relied on to enforce a parking charge
• You have evidence that you should be exempt, for example an emergency outside your control, in which case the CMA says the charge should be cancelled
• You paid the fee but made a mistake such as mistyping your registration number, in which case the CMA says the charge should be reduced to £20 in some circumstances
• The vehicle was stolen: the keeper's right applies only if the vehicle was not stolen at the beginning of the period of parking, and the keeper must produce evidence of the theft, such as a police report

The Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 requires the Secretary of State to prepare a code of practice containing guidance about the operation and management of private parking facilities and about appeals against private parking charges. The Act applies across England, Scotland and Wales. The government consulted on proposals from 11 July to 26 September 2025 before launching the code.

On 16 July 2026 the CMA announced an investigation into Euro Car Parks and recommended that the new Code of Practice require parking firms to make drivers aware of their rights and to run fair, consistent appeals processes. In the same announcement it pointed to the existing industry Code of Practice, and GOV.UK's parking tickets guide still sends private parking appeals to POPLA or IAS.

On 20 October 2026 the government laid its own Private Parking Code of Practice before Parliament. It is not in force yet: the Code sits before Parliament for a 40-day period, the government says it will be issued on 30 November 2026 if there are no objections from parliamentarians, and under the Act a code comes into force 21 days after it is issued.

The government says the new Code gives drivers a minimum five-minute consideration period at all sites except pre-booked parking, and a minimum 10-minute grace period after the parking period has ended at all sites other than short-stay car parks. It says charges will be cancelled on appeal for honest mistakes, such as stopping briefly to check directions, and for a medical emergency, a breakdown or a broken ticket machine, with a maximum charge of £20 on appeal for smaller slip-ups such as forgetting a permit or entering the wrong registration.

The maximum parking charge stays at £100, operators who do not comply risk losing access to DVLA data, and the Code will apply in England, Scotland and Wales. The government has also promised to consult next year on debt recovery fees, including whether to cut the existing £70 cap or scrap the fees altogether. Until the new Code is in force, the existing industry code and the POPLA and IAS routes above still apply.