How Can I Challenge A Nottingham City PCN?
This blog serves to answer the question “How Can I Challenge A Nottingham City PCN?” Your PCN challenge should either convince the Nottingham City Council that the contravention never occurred or that it occurred as a result of unforeseen mitigating circumstances which affected your driving abilities. Authentic evidence material must be provided to explain your point of view to the council.
How Can I Challenge A Nottingham City PCN?
You can challenge your Nottingham City PCN by visiting the official website and selecting the contravention code mentioned on your Penalty Charge Notice. In the next step you need to carefully select the grounds for your PCN appeal by disregarding any incorrect choices. You should be able to prove these reasons for your challenge with the help of authentic evidence material.
If your mitigating circumstances include a serious health condition, you must have medical certificates from a certified General Practitioner (dating from before the traffic violation) to attach as evidence with your PCN challenge. Similarly if you are trying to prove that the traffic contravention never occurred, you should have video footage of the traffic contravention scene clearly showing that your vehicle did not disregard a moving traffic road sign or fail to move in the prescribed direction.
It is essential that you formulate a strong appeals case before submitting your formal representation to the Nottingham City Council so that you don’t end up with a Notice of Rejection of Representations from the council (which implies that your appeal has been refused).
In many cases, PCNs are not enforceable and you may be able to win your case and avoid having to pay your fine.
You could begin the process by speaking to an online solicitor for as little as £5.
What is a Penalty Charge Notice?
A Penalty Charge Notice is a monetary penalty issued to drivers or motorists for committing certain traffic contraventions including violating Parking, Bus Lane and Moving Traffic restrictions. A PCN is issued for failing to follow Parking zone, bus lane enforcement and moving traffic restrictions mentioned in the Road Traffic Act 1984 and the Traffic Management Act 2004.
A penalty charge notice can be handed to you by a Civil Enforcement Officer or dispatched to your (DVLA) residential address by post. Traffic contraventions are observed by CCTV cameras and Civil Enforcement Officers before a violation is detected and the vehicle is charged with a PCN.
A PCN might also be issued for failing to pay road charges on time. You have 28 days to decide how and if you would like to challenge your Penalty Charge Notice. After 28 days if you have neither paid nor challenged your PCN, you will be sent a charge certificate from the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.
If you don’t challenge a PCN, you should pay the fine within 28 days, otherwise its amount will increase by 50%. A £70 PCN will be worth £105, if you pay it in the 14 days after receiving your charge certificate.
What is the procedure for appealing against a Nottingham City PCN?
You can appeal against a Nottingham City PCN by writing a formal representation letter. The informal challenge stage only applies to Parking PCN served by a CEO or to a CCTV Bus Lane PCN.You can write a PCN appeal to the council mentioning your PCN number and vehicle registration number.
The formal representation has to be made on your “Notice to Owner” after filling out your personal details on the form.The PCN appeal should also be signed and dated by you on the last page. The completed Notice to Owner document along with any medical certificates, pay or display tickets or photographs attached as proof needs to be sent to:
Parking Regulation and Compliance,
PO Box 10169,,
Nottingham,
NG1 9HS
You can also challenge your Nottingham City PCN online by clicking here. On this webpage you need to click on “Appeal A PCN Online”. This opens a new window where you can select the contravention code stated on your PCN (from a choice of 23 options). After clicking on the contravention code you can select the grounds for your PCN challenge.
This question needs to be answered very carefully because you cannot change your entry once you move on to the next step. You should take your time to study your case and which justifiable reasons or mitigating circumstances can be successfully proven with the evidence you have available.
You can leave the online form as it is and come back to it later after a day or two with proper evidence documents, still photos, or video footage. Once you have written down a PCN challenge on paper and matched the evidence with your grounds for appeal, you can proceed to fill out this online form again. You should also know that nearly half of the grounds stated as options are incorrect ones, which must not be selected.
After selecting the appropriate reason for your challenge, which should say “Appeal your PCN” under it, you can click on “Appeal Your PCN” This leads you to the login page for appealing your Nottingham City PCN where you have to enter your PCN number and vehicle registration number and then select “I Accept The Terms And Conditions”. You can view these terms and conditions here
After clicking on “Search” you will be shown your PCN details. This payments and appeals service has the same account so you must be careful not to click on the PCN payment option after you log in.
You can view CCTV camera footage of your traffic contravention before constructing your PCN appeal.The reasons for you disputing the PCN must be typed into a word processing software first and explained using the wording of relevant traffic regulations. These reasons need to be formally compiled into an appeals letter to be submitted to the Nottingham City Council along with any material evidence.
So you can take 3 to 4 days for recollecting your thoughts about the traffic violation incident and recall the attempts you made (for instance) to avoid breaching the bus lane or no entry zone. These actions stated in your formal representation must be supported by photos or videos from the scene. Evidence including photos and videos can be attached online by using the Nottingham City Council website.
You can also submit an informal representation to your Nottingham City PCN (CCTV Bus Lane PCN or Parking PCN served by a CEO) by accessing your PCN details here. You have to fill out the informal representation form by typing your full name, email address and the contents of your informal representation. Once you are done, you can click “submit”. The informal appeals stage is applicable to PCNs sent by post.
You have to make the challenge to your PCN within 28 days of receiving it.
If the Nottingham City Council accepts your PCN appeal, the PCN will be annulled and you will not be liable for paying any monetary penalty. In case the council sends you a “Notice of Rejection” by disapproving of your representation you will have to pay the amount mentioned on your PCN.
How much is the PCN fine for each of the 3 kinds of PCNs served in Nottingham City Council?
The 3 kinds of PCNs served in Nottingham City Council are Parking PCNs, Bus Lane PCNs and Moving Traffic PCNs.
The Penalty Charge Notice fine for a Nottingham City Parking PCN is set at £70 for a higher level traffic violation and £50 for a lower level traffic violation. A 50% discount applies to early payment so If you pay your higher level parking PCN within 14 days, you just have to pay £35. Similarly, if you pay your lower level parking PCN within 14 days, you just have to pay just £25.
If you pay a Bus Lane PCN within 28 days, you will be charged £70 and if you pay it within 21 days, you just have to pay £35. The PCN fine for a moving traffic PCN in Nottingham City Council is £70. There is a 50% discount for paying it within 14 days, which reduces the fine to £35.
How can I pay my Nottingham City PCN?
You can pay a Nottingham City PCN through the postal service, by telephone or online here
The Nottingham City Council website has a system for viewing your PCN details before paying the PCN. You need to open this webpage to access the Penalty Charge Notice payments system. Your PCN number and vehicle registration number have to be entered to initiate the payment process.
Once you click “Search” you will be directed to your online PCN, where you can choose to pay for it. In the next window, you will be required to provide your payment card details. Nottingham City Council accepts VisaCard, MasterCard, Maestro Card, DeltaCard, and Electron Card for PCN payments.
You can also pay on the Nottingham City Council’s automated payments hotline by dialling: 0800 052 0173. Next, you will be required to provide your payment card details, PCN Number, and vehicle registration number. You can enter your PCN number by replacing the letters with the * key. This payment hotline is active 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The Nottingham City Council also accepts PCN fine payments by post. You can send a check, payable to “Nottingham City Council”. You have to write down your PCN Number and Vehicle Registration Number on the back of your check or postal order.
Send your PCN payment to this address:
Parking Regulation and Compliance,
PO Box 10169,,
Nottingham,
NG1 9HS
What will happen if I don’t pay my Nottingham City PCN within the 28-day limit?
If you fail to pay your Nottingham City PCN within the 28-day limit you will be sent a charge certificate from the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. The charge certificate increases your PCN fine by 50%. You should pay the charge certificate within 14 days as it cannot be appealed and ignoring the charge certificate may result in the filing of a court order (for recovery of debts) against you by the Nottingham City Council.
When the charge certificate is also not paid within 14 days, you will receive a “Notice of Debt Registration” and a witness certificate from the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. The unpaid amount will be treated as a debt with the Traffic Enforcement Centre at the Northampton County Court.
The court order for debt recovery enforces that the charge certificate amount must be paid in full within 21 days or it will have to use additional powers to recover the money from your possession.
Can I Dispute A Nottingham City PCN with the Traffic Penalty Tribunal if the council dismisses my appeal?
Yes, you can dispute the decision of the Nottingham City Council in your “Notice of Rejection of Representations” with the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. The Traffic Penalty Tribunal website requires you to enter details given on your Notice of Rejection of Representations, after opening this webpage
You can watch this instructional video here to learn about your challenge process. The video clearly explains how to use the online service offered by the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. On the Traffic Penalty Tribunal webpage, you will first have to select the type of PCN you were served by the Nottingham City Council (shown on the bottom part of the page) .
After clicking on your specific type of Penalty Charge Notice, you should select “England” (Outside London). In the window which opens up, you should click on the orange box which reads “If you don’t agree with the PCN, you can make representations against it” .
After viewing the instructions on the following page, you need to click on “Start your appeal here” at the bottom of the webpage You will then be required to enter your Vehicle Registration Number, the reference number from the “Notice of Rejection” letter from the Nottingham City Council, and your PCN number for which the appeal was rejected on this page.
You can use the online service to challenge multiple “Notices of Rejection” simultaneously. You will require a valid email address to create an account on the Traffic Penalty Tribunal website. You have to upload a copy of your “Notice of Rejection of Representations” letter to your application by using the Traffic Penalty Tribunal’s online portal.
You can upload evidence such as video clips of your traffic violation scenes (taken from inside your vehicle), medical certificates from a certified General Practitioner, maps of the area showing the exact distance your vehicle travelled inside a no entry zone and scanned copies of “pay and display” tickets. You should construct a strong appeals case to communicate your mitigating circumstances or to deliver your assertion that the traffic violation never occurred.
The Traffic Penalty Tribunal should be able to ascertain the legitimacy of your situation by viewing evidence material uploaded to the PCN appeals system.
Your appeal of the “Notice of Rejection of Representations” should be submitted to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal within 28 days of receiving your Notification of Rejection from the Nottingham City Council. You must avail this chance of a free and independent hearing of your case.
You will be able to contact the Traffic Penalty Tribunal adjudicator during the formulation of your appeal. The result of your appeal will be communicated to you within 14-28 days of submitting your representation. If the adjudicator decides the case in your favour, the PCN will be cancelled by the Nottingham City Council.
Conclusion
This blog post addressed the question “How Can I Challenge A Nottingham City PCN?” You must mention authentic and verifiable grounds for your Nottingham City PCN challenge. If you have clearly proven your assertion with the help of specific (photo or video) evidence from the traffic violation scene or by using genuine evidence of your mitigating circumstances it is highly likely that your PCN will be cancelled.