A FOI request by the online parking marketplace YourParkingSpace.co.uk has revealed that, on average, 31% of all council parking ticket appeals are successful.
However, the chances of success varies widely across the country, from a high of 81% successfully appealed down to a low of less than 1%, leading to a ‘parking postcode lottery’.
Parking ticket stuck on car windscreen a penalty or fine
Motorists who appealed a PCN from Basingstoke and Dean were shown to have the greatest chance of having it overturned, with an 81% success rate. Lincolnshire County Council had a 80% success rate with West Dorset and Solihull councils all had appeal success rates of 77%, whereas Preston, Bournemouth, Swindon, Lewisham, and Merton all had success rates of 20% or less. Appeals in Wandsworth, South-West London, and Havering, East London, had the lowest success rate, with less than 1% of parking ticket fines being overturned by the Councils.
Harrison Woods, Managing Director of YourParkingSpace.co.uk commented: “Receiving a parking ticket is always frustrating, whether it was deserved or not. And as the research shows, whether you win your appeal or not often simply comes down to where the ticket was issued.”
In total, 190 councils across the UK replied to a freedom of information request, showing that nearly 24%, more than 1.1million, of all council-issued parking tickets are appealed, with an average of 31% of those appeals being successful.
Managing Director Harrison Woods has called on councils to embrace new technology as a solution, “It’s madness that some councils are dealing with tens of thousands of PCN appeals, sometimes with over 50% of those appeals being successful. It’s a huge administrative expense and something that could be avoided if more were to embrace the changing customer behaviour of pre-booking online.
Mr Woods went on to say, “Motorists want to stay within the law and we’d welcome the opportunity to work with more councils to open up their car parks to online booking. It’s a win-win – it helps motorists avoid parking illegally, and for councils it results in additional revenue and a reduction in the administrative headache of PCN appeals.”
Councils with the lowest chance of a successful PCN appeal:
| Council | PCNs Issued | PCNs Appealed | Successful Appeals | % Successful |
| Wandsworth | 165,840 | 55,230 | 47 | 0.08% |
| Havering | 38,304 | 25,370 | 89 | 0.3% |
| Bournemouth | 33,566 | 3,568 | 49 | 1% |
| Leicester City | 38,162 | 6,076 | 84 | 1.3% |
| Newham | 169,588 | 17,171 | 823 | 4.7% |
Councils with the highest chance of a successful PCN appeal:
| Council | PCNs Issued |
PCNs Appealed |
Successful Appeals |
% Successful |
| Basingstoke and Deane | 8,575 | 2,482 | 2,015 | 81% |
| Lincolnshire County Council | 2,779 | 756 | 609 | 80% |
| West Dorset | 3,794 | 1,086 | 842 | 77% |
| Solihull | 17,220 | 4,856 | 3,743 | 77% |
| North Norfolk | 6,012 | 2,087 | 1,596 | 76% |
