Paying your Penalty Charge Notice & Making Representations
Follow this link to pay Penalty Charge Notices
| Please note - we are presently experiencing technical issues with the Firefox browser, until this is fixed, we recommend users to use Internet Explorer. We apologise for any inconvenience this may be causing. In the meantime you can still pay your fine using any of the following ways: - If you received your parking fine within the last 24 hours, please telephone 01274 434300 and speak to one of our advisors
- Follow this link to pay Penalty Charge Notices
- If you parking fine was issued more than 24 hours ago you can make a payment using our automated payment facility on 0845 130 6800
|
The Penalty Charge Notice (PCN)
The receipt of a PCN requires a payment of £50 or £70, depending on the contravention occurred. However, if you pay within 14 days you will receive a 50% discount and will only have to pay £25 or £35.
If payment is not received within 14 days, the owner of the Vehicle will be sent a statutory notice known as a Notice to Owner (NTO), which will allow them to pay the full amount.
If payments or representations are still not made within 28 days of the NTO, the Council will send a Charge Certificate and the cost of the original penalty charge will be increased by 50% of the original charge and allows 21 days for payment, beginning with the date of posting.
If payment has not been received after 21 days, we may register the charge with the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) at Northampton County Court to recover the unpaid charge. The TEC is part of the County Court based at Northampton that deals with the registration of debts from England and Wales for all unpaid Penalty Charge Notices. See Her Majesty's Courts Service website for more details.
After the TEC has sent confirmation to the council that they may proceed to recover the charge, we have 15 days to prepare and serve the following forms on you:
- Order for the Recovery of Unpaid Penalty Charge
- Witness Statement If the Charge Certificate is not paid within registered as a civil debt at the County Court. The cost of the PCN will also go up by 50% of the original charge.
The Penalty Charges associated with PCN’s are civil debts, with payment due to the Local Authority, and are enforceable through a streamlined version of the normal civil dept recovery process. The Council has the option to recover unpaid debts by the use of bailiffs.
Representation and Appeals
Once a PCN has been issued the Civil Enforcement Officer cannot cancel it. Motorists who feel that a PCN has been issued wrongly have the right to make a representation to the Council. The Council will assess each case and if it is found that the PCN was issued incorrectly, it will be cancelled and no payment required.
Alternatively, if the Council feels the PCN was issued correctly then a letter will be sent explaining the reasons for the decision. The Council will also explain at this stage how an appeal may be made to an independent adjudicator at the Traffic Penalty Tribunal (TPT). The Adjudication will consider each case and their decision is final.
Flow chart of the various stages of the process
