Drivers reminded about FREE service that helps you fight your parking ticket – and nearly 60% of drivers are winning

MANY drivers don’t know about a free service that can help you fight a variety of different Penalty Charge Notices.

The service helps some 35,000 drivers appeal their tickets each year across England and Wales and two-thirds of them win.

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The Traffic Penalty Tribunal can step in once you’ve been through the council’s process[/caption]

The service is called the Traffic Penalty Tribunal and 90% of all appeals are carried out completely online.

They don’t hang around, either, because more than 75% of the appeals raised are completed within a month.

All the appeals are handled by independent lawyers who work part-time.

They help if you feel you’ve been wrongly fined for situations involving parking, driving in bus lanes, moving traffic, Clean Air Zones, Zero Emission Zones, littering from vehicles and road user charging.

As its website explains, you can’t make an appeal through the TPT straight away – you have to go through the council’s process first.

‘An appeal can only be made to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal once you have first made representations to the authority that issued the PCN, and have been unsuccessful.

‘At this point, the authority will issue you with a Notice of Rejection of Representations.

‘The steps that lead to the representations process are different depending on the type of PCN you have received.’

But if you’re confident you’re in the right and you have your Rejection of Representations letter, you can begin your appeal online.

The service works for most councils across England and Wales, but not for London, which is run by TFL.

TPT’s most recent data suggests that from 2020-2021 it helped carry forward 18,117 appeals for motorists.

Of that number, 3,695 motorists failed, but 3,753 won and a staggering 6,748 appeals weren’t contested by the council involved at all.

That means around 57% of drivers who came to the TPT with an appeal walk away without having to pay.

You can filter the date, by type of fine, by council, by area and even compare different areas to see how likely it is you’ll win.