How Can I Challenge A Sleaford PCN?

This blog serves to answer the question “How Can I Challenge A Sleaford PCN?” You can challenge a Sleaford PCN by either focusing your argument on putting forward your mitigating circumstances for why the traffic violation occurred or by clearly stating that the traffic contravention did not happen at all and supporting your statements by evidence such as an authentic video clip. Either ways your statements must be backed by authentic evidence material which relates directly to your traffic violation incident and shows how it didn’t happen or otherwise.

How Can I Challenge A Sleaford PCN?

You can challenge a Sleaford PCN by visiting the Lincolnshire County Council website and entering your PCN Number and Vehicle Registration Number. This process simply logs you into the general database of PCN’s contained by the Lincolnshire County council’s server.

Sleaford Town is a part of Lincolnshire County Council, which is the administrative division responsible for enforcing Parking, Bus Lane, and Moving Traffic contraventions in the town council. The CCTV cameras and Civil Enforcement Officers of the Lincolnshire County Council observe the parking zones, streets, and roads of Sleaford town council for catching any breach of contravention codes enforced in the council. 

The Lincolnshire County Council will also respond to your informal representation and your formal representation to a Sleaford PCN and decide whether to cancel your PCN or issue a “Notice of Rejection”. You have to study the contravention code on your PCN before you start writing down your PCN challenge, and note whether it is a parking, bus lane or moving traffic contravention. 

You need to construct an appeal by matching the available evidence with the grounds of your challenge. This means that you need to match a video clip or photograph with a statement like this traffic violation didn’t happen. You have to correctly choose the video clip or set of photographs that show how what you are mentioning is true.

The evidence relating to your PCN challenge will be available with you if you regularly film video clips of your road journeys in the council and keep these on your computer for later use. These videos can be filmed by someone travelling with you in your vehicle. You can create a separate folder on your computer for these video clips and arrange them by date and time for easy use.

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. CCTV cameras and Civil Enforcement Officers observe traffic contraventions 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.

Can I Only Challenge A Sleaford PCN on the official website?

Yes, you can only challenge a Sleaford PCN on the Lincolnshire County website.

Your Lincolnshire PCN appeal can be initiated by clicking here. On this webpage, you need to enter your PCN number and Vehicle Registration number and click “” Search” to start your PCN challenge. 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 can be typed into a word processing software first and related to the text of the relevant traffic contravention code as well as to the specific material evidence you plan to use in your appeal. These reasons need to be formally compiled into an appeals letter to be submitted to the Lincolnshire County Council along with any material evidence.

So you can take 3 to 4 days for recollecting your thoughts about the traffic violation incident and even check your vehicle to recall the position in which it was parked that day. If you were driving with a passenger, their observations of the scene from the back seat of your vehicle could also help you to explain exactly what happened. Evidence including photos and videos can be attached online by accessing the Lincolnshire County Council PCN database

You have to make the challenge to your PCN within 28 days of receiving it.

 The informal challenge stage only applies to Parking PCN served by a CEO or to a CCTV Bus Lane PCN and has to be made before you are granted the chance for a formal representation. Informal representations are made for PCNs delivered by post only.

 You can submit an informal representation to your Sleaford PCN through email by writing to lincolnshirenoticeprocessing@apcoa.com. You are advised to also add this email to your contacts list so your informal challenge reply doesn’t get delivered to your junk mail folder.

If the Lincolnshire County 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 Lincolnshire County Council?

The 3 kinds of PCNs served in Lincolnshire County Council are a Parking PCN, a Bus Lane PCN, and a Moving Traffic PCN. 

The Penalty Charge Notice fine for a Sleaford 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 Sleaford Town 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 Sleaford PCN fine?

You can pay your Sleaford PCN by telephone, or online here.

The Lincolnshire County 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. You can enter your PCN number and vehicle registration number here and click on “Search” to view details about your Sleaford PCN. After this, you can pay your PCN by typing in your payment card details.

Lincolnshire County Council accepts VisaCard, MasterCard, Maestro Card, DeltaCard, and Electron Card for PCN payments.

You can also pay on the Lincolnshire County Council’s automated payments hotline by dialling: 03300 883 732. 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.

What will happen if I don’t pay my Sleaford PCN within the 28-day limit?

You should not ignore traffic contraventions or the Penalty Charge Notices resulting from them or cultivate a careless attitude towards driving in Lincolnshire County Council. As per your driving license rules, you are bound to abide by Parking, Bus Lane, and Moving Traffic contravention codes in Lincolnshire County Council.

If you neither pay your Sleaford PCN within 28 days nor decide to appeal against it, you will be sent a charge certificate from the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. The charge certificate increases your PCN fine by 50%, which means you will be paying £105 (or £75) now. 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 Lincolnshire County Council.

You will be sent a “Notice of Debt Registration” and a witness certificate from the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, if you don’t pay the charge certificate amount within 14 days. 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 the county court will have to use additional powers to recover the money from your possession which means employing Enforcement Agents to (contact you or) visit your personal premises.

Can I Dispute A Sleaford PCN with the Traffic Penalty Tribunal if the Lincolnshire County Council dismisses my appeal?

Yes, you can dispute the decision of the Lincolnshire County 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 Lincolnshire County 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 Lincolnshire County 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 Lincolnshire County Council. You must avail yourself of 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 Lincolnshire County Council.

Conclusion

This blog post addressed the question “How Can I Challenge A Sleaford PCN?” You need to have evidence to attach with your Sleaford PCN challenge in the form of a video clip or photographs from the traffic violation scene. You should remember to construct a strong PCN challenge by using the permissible grounds of appeal under your specific contravention code.