How Can I Challenge An Upper Thomson PCN?
This blog serves to answer the question “How Can I Challenge An Upper Thomson PCN?” Your PCN challenge needs to be carefully compiled by listing down any mitigating circumstances which affected your driving ability that day and by matching your available evidence material with the grounds for your appeal. It is necessary for you to remember that you will not have any evidence material to support your Upper Thomson PCN challenge unless you film videos of your road journeys in Thomson Village and save your used parking permits.
How Can I Challenge An Upper Thomson PCN?
You can challenge an Upper Thomson PCN by filling the formal representation form on the council website or by writing a challenge on the back side of your Notice to Owner document and sending it by mail to the Norwich City Council.
The first step in composing your appeal is to study the contravention code mentioned on your Penalty Charge Notice. For instance, you have been served a CCTV bus lane PCN with the contravention code 34 M or 34 F, which means your vehicle has been spotted inside a bus lane during its operational hours. You can contest the PCN by mentioning that you had to access a property (on an offset bus street lane) that can only be reached by taking that route.
To prove this you can provide a map of the area which clearly shows your route leading to the property entrance. For confirming that this property belongs to you or to a relative of yours, you can provide their contact details as well.
Similarly to challenge moving traffic PCNs you can state mitigating circumstances which affected your driving abilities. The error should preferably be a slight movement towards a no-entry zone, where you realised your mistake and attempted to steer your vehicle along the correct route. This series of actions need to be explained with the help of video footage taken from a digital camera at the traffic violation scene.
You should create a habit of recording your road trips on film by employing the assistance of a relative or friend travelling with you. The evidence obtained from videos of your vehicle moving on the road or in parking zones across Thomson Village can help you to prove that a traffic contravention didn’t occur (if that was actually the case).
It is essential for you to compile a strong appeals case before sending in your formal representation so as to avoid being served a “Notice of Rejection of Representations”, which means the Norwich City Council has denied your PCN appeal.
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.
What is the procedure for appealing against an Upper Thomson PCN?
You can submit a formal representation to your Upper Thomson PCN by writing a letter addressed to the Norwich City Council or by filling in the online formal representation form on the Norwich City Council website. Thomson Village forms part of the Norfolk County Council (which also includes Norwich City) and the Norwich City Council is responsible for serving and dealing with Penalty Charge Notices in Thomson Village. So a Penalty Charge Notice issued in Thomson Village is actually a Norwich City PCN.
You need to brainstorm reasons to challenge an Upper Thomson PCN from the day of the incident and list them down in a word processing software or on paper. It is essential to have some authentic evidence to attach with your PCN appeal in the form of video footage of the traffic violation, medical certificates explaining your mitigating circumstances, or pay and display tickets.
The evidence must be matched with the grounds for your appeal before describing the incident from your point of view. Your rough formal representation can be edited for clarity multiple times before it is ready to attach to your online appeal to the Norwich City Council. You need to visit the Norwich City Council website to submit a formal representation to your PCN. You have to open this webpage to enter your PCN number and your Vehicle Registration Number. You need to click on “Search” to view your PCN details before filling in the online appeals form.
It is essential to upload authentic evidence material with your PCN challenge to describe your mitigating circumstances to the Norwich City Council and for explaining your point of view of the events which took place at the traffic violation scene. The text of your appeal must state the relevant contravention code on your PCN and explain how you attempted to avoid the error (supported by photos or video footage).
Once you have proofread your appeal to eliminate any reasons for your challenge which might convey a disregard for traffic contravention codes enforced in Norwich City Council (by mixing up the contraventions) or reasons which involve forgetfulness to justify your actions, you can submit the formal representation.
Another way to send in your Upper Thomson PCN challenge is by mail. You can write down a formal representation on the backside of your Notice to Owner and attach evidence documents or photographs to the form using a stapler or paper clip. This PCN challenge should be sent to the Norwich City Council’s postal address. Your letter should also mention your PCN number, date of issue of the PCN, your vehicle registration number, and personal details.
Your PCN appeals form and all accompanying evidence documents (enclosed in an envelope) need to be sent to:
Norwich City Council,,
City Hall,
St. Peters Street,
Norwich,
NR2 1NH
How can I pay my Upper Thomson PCN fine?
You should be aware of the fact that you can only pay your Upper Thomson PCN online. The PCN fine can be paid online on the Norwich City Council’s official website (using Visa Card, Master Card, Direct Debit, or Maestro Card) This payment method saves time and is also more precise as your details are entered directly into an electronic database.
If you were looking for a postal order payment option or a choice for paying your PCN fine via the council’s telephone hotline, you might be disappointed to learn that these options are unavailable in Norwich City Council.
You need to open this webpage to initiate your Upper Thomson PCN fine payment online. You need to enter your PCN Number and Vehicle Registration Number here. After clicking on “Search” you can access the Norwich City Council’s Online Payments system. On the next page you can enter your payment card details to complete the payment process.
You must remember to wait for 24 hours after your Upper Thomson PCN is issued before attempting to pay it.
You have to pay your Upper Thomson PCN fine within 28 days. You should pay before 14 days if you don’t want to miss out on the 50% early payment discount (which reduces Parking PCNs to £35 or £25 and Moving Traffic PCNs to £35). If you pay your Upper Thomson Bus Lane PCN within 21 days, you will have to pay just £35.
How much is the PCN fine for each of the 3 kinds of PCNs served in Thomson Village?
A Parking PCN in Thomson Village is served for violating higher or lower level parking restrictions. You have to pay £70 for committing a higher level parking contravention and £50 for a lower level parking contravention. If you pay the parking fine within 14 days, you will just be paying £35 or £25 as a 50% discount is applicable to your payment.
For failing to comply with a bus lane contravention code or a moving traffic restriction in Thomson Village, you will be charged a £70 Penalty Charge Notice. The 50% early payment discount reduces both these types of PCN fines to £35 if a bus lane PCN is paid within 21 days and a moving traffic PCN is paid within 14 days
What will happen if I don’t pay my Upper Thomson 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 Norwich City Council. As per your driving license rules, you are bound to abide by Parking, Bus Lane, and Moving Traffic contravention codes in Norwich City Council.
If you neither pay your Upper Thomson 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 Norwich City 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 An Upper Thomson PCN with the Traffic Penalty Tribunal if the Norwich City Council dismisses my appeal?
Yes, you can dispute the decision of the Norwich 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 Norwich 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 Norwich 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 Norwich City 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 Norwich City Council.
Conclusion
This blog post addressed the question “How Can I Challenge An Upper Thomson PCN. The aim of your Upper Thomson PCN challenge should ideally be to prove that the traffic violation never happened by attaching authentic evidence material such as photographs or video footage showing your vehicle being driven correctly. Parking PCNs can only be challenged if you can prove that your mitigating circumstances prevented you from removing your vehicle from the parking zone within your allotted time limit.