Annual Parking Report 2022

The financial operation of a CPE system is broken down into two distinct elements, namely costs (expenditure) and income (revenue). The balance between these two elements indicates whether the scheme is likely to be financially sustainable over the longer term.  

Costs are broken down into three areas:  

• Capital Expenditure - Fixed elements, irrespective of their size and design. These include scheme design (Civil Enforcement Area, contractors, etc), media campaign, street works;  
• Revenue Expenditure - Fixed elements, irrespective of size and design, including enforcement software maintenance, printing, tribunal costs, DVLA tracing charges;  
• Revenue Expenditure - Variable elements depending on the size and design, including Notice Processing and Enforcement Officer costs.  

Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004 introduced Civil Parking Enforcement to create a more reasonable, transparent, and proportionate system of parking enforcement. It also sets out to improve consistency across England, whilst allowing local councils which operate CPE to tailor their specific operations to suit their transport policies and other local needs with that national framework.  

Parking Revenue Budget  

The table at appendix 3 is published in accordance with both section 55 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 (as amended) and the Local Government Transparency Code 2015.  

Where parking operations covered by this legislation produce a surplus, the legislation specifies the order in which that surplus must be applied.  

Penalty Charge Notices issued  

The council issued a total of 23,078 PCN's across the Borough during the year in review (including bus lane PCNs). Of those, 3,943 were issued for on-street contraventions with 3,148 issued for off-street contraventions and 17,739 for being in a bus lane (a contravention is essentially the civil law equivalent of an offence).  

Appendix 4 lists number of PCNs issued under each contravention code. Appendix 5 shows the number of PCNs issued by type for the year. Appendix 6 shows the locations where the greatest number of PCNs were issued. 

Challenges, Representations and Appeals  

During the year, over 5,672 pieces of written correspondence were recorded as having been received in connection with PCNs. The council endeavours to record the principal reasons for the cancellation of PCNs. This enables us to make any changes or improvements necessary to reduce the probability of the same problems occurring again.  

Where the specific reason is recorded, the largest number of cancellations was because a valid pay and display ticket was subsequently produced where none was clearly visible in the vehicle at the time. 

Of the 23,078 PCNs issued in the year 2022-23, 13.2% of all PCN's issued were cancelled. 

Headline information regarding the number and outcome of appeals submitted to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal is published on the Tribunal's website.