Traffic Penalty Tribunal launches new online portal to fight unfair parking fines

The Traffic Penalty Tribunal is rolling out a new online platform to make it easier to battle against unfair Penalty Charge Notices.

There’s nothing worse than coming back to your car to find a parking penalty littering your windscreen, but have you ever tried challenging the fine?

Currently a paltry 0.5% of people make an official appeal to independent adjudicators, the Traffic Penalty Tribunal (TPT), when they get a Penalty Charge Notice. However, 50% of those that do are successful in overturning it.

It’s thought the lack of people challenging council parking fines is due to the long-winded process, but the system is about to get easier with the launch of a new TPT online platform.

The TPT

You can appeal against Penalty Charge Notices issued by the majority of councils in England and Wales (outside London) dished out for parking contraventions, bus lane and moving traffic as well as Dartford River crossing and Durham congestion charging zone fines to the TPT.

With the launch of a new online portal, drivers will be able to appeal fines via their smartphone, tablet, laptop or PC rather than having to do it through the post.

TPT claims it will make it easier for drivers to battle unfair charges and will make the process of appeals cheaper for councils too, with an average saving of £200 per case.

The tool has been launched in conjunction with Resolver, an online complaints service, and aims to speed up the appeals process and allow more people to fight unfair fines.

How it works

If you get a parking ticket from the council, you will need to decide whether you want to challenge it. If you do you will need to contact the council that issued it and go through its challenge process.

Appealing to the TPT is the final stage in the challenge process and you can only use the service once you have a Notice of Rejection of Representations letter from the council.

Providing your council has signed up, you can use the platform to fill in your details. Then you just need to pick why you think the fine is unfair from a list of reasons.

The TPT will investigate the case and if it rules in your favour you won’t have to pay the fine. If it doesn’t, you will need to escalate the matter in court if you still aren’t happy.

Caroline Sheppard, Chief Adjudicator of the TPT, said: "Getting a parking ticket can be a frustrating experience, but our new portal makes the appeals process quicker, simpler and more transparent.

"The platform has already generated considerable interest from other areas of the UK judiciary because it is fast, efficient, accessible and will bring cost savings to local authorities as well as simplifying the process for those appealing."

The system has launched with Brighton and Hove council, and is set to be rolled out across England (but not London) and Wales by the end of the year.

Other help for wronged drivers

The new online tool can only really help in the appeals stage of fighting an unfair parking fine, but to deal with the initial stages of a fine you can use donotpay.co.uk.

Last year student Joshua Browder set up the website, which allows drivers to pick a defence from a list of 12 possible scenarios and fill in their details, which are packaged into a letter and automatically sent off to the chosen council.

Read more about it in How you can beat unfair parking tickets in seconds.

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