Free Traffic Legal Advice
General discussion => The Flame Pit => Topic started by: Incandescent on September 13, 2026, 01:41:45 am
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It scares me to drive these days. Councils also seem to suddenly introduce speed limits or signs and if you have been driving on the same roads for years, you get caught out.
Traffic management, the reason for all the PCN legislation, has long been forgotten in the rapacious drive for cash. The whole setup is ripe for reform.
So people from Crewe and/or Claygate and/or Islington to attend Parliament Square. I have beeen advocating ths for years. Transport Select Committee.
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Now, taking the 0,5% of cases that went to London Tribunals off the total of PCNs served, we get a figure of 9,414,874.075 for PCNs paid. It's difficult to find out which were paid at the full rate or paid at the discount, so to get a reasonable figure, I ignore the higher rate for those paid and just use the discount rates.
The paid figure is probably much lower than this as you're forgetting that authorities do cancel PCNs and a significant number are not enforceable (eg on foreign vehicles, evaders, clones).
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It scares me to drive these days. Councils also seem to suddenly introduce speed limits or signs and if you have been driving on the same roads for years, you get caught out.
Traffic management, the reason for all the PCN legislation, has long been forgotten in the rapacious drive for cash. The whole setup is ripe for reform.
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It scares me to drive these days. Councils also seem to suddenly introduce speed limits or signs and if you have been driving on the same roads for years, you get caught out.
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Fag-packet = no smoke witout fire. Some of them have now followed TFL and are refusing to release data.
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Just been doing some "back of a fag packet" calculations on the sums gained by London Councils and TfL from PCNs.
London Councils report that: -
27 October 2025
London Councils data on parking enforcement and appeals in London for 2024-25 show that London boroughs, the London Lorry Control Scheme and Transport for London issued a total of 9,462,185 Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) to motorists who had contravened parking, bus lane and moving traffic regulations. This represents an increase of 13.5% in PCNs issued since 2023-24.
This increase was due to an 13.4% rise in the number of parking PCNs issued, while bus lane PCNs saw an increase of 16.8% and moving traffic PCNs an increase of 13.3%. The total number of PCN appeals received by London Tribunals has increased by 13.6%, from 42,193 in 2023-24 to 47,935 in 2024-25.
The percentage of total appeals won by the appellant fell from 54.9% in 2023-4 to 49.4% in 2024-5. Total appeals logged has increased by 5,742 (13.6%) to 47,935, which is 0.45% of appeals received against total PCNs issued. This shows a significant improvement by boroughs in both the quality of evidence presented at appeal and how challenges to the PCN are considered by boroughs at earlier stages.
So, appeals at London Tribunals represent 0.5% of PCNs.and less than 50% were won by the appellants.
Now, taking the 0,5% of cases that went to London Tribunals off the total of PCNs served, we get a figure of 9,414,874.075 for PCNs paid. It's difficult to find out which were paid at the full rate or paid at the discount, so to get a reasonable figure, I ignore the higher rate for those paid and just use the discount rates. These are the rates in use: -
Higher and lower parking Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) in London are split by severity and location, with full rates of £160 or £140 for higher offences and £110 or £90 for lower offences, which are halved if paid within 14 days
So I'm going to make it simple and just use the mean between these rates at the discounted rate
Parking represents about 50% of all PCNs served, so assume half are at the higher rate and half at the lower, so this gives us £150 discounted to £75 for higher offences, and £100 discounted to £50 for the lower.
Assume that the PCNs are equally distributed between higher and lower contraventions
So half of PCNs for parking = 4,707,437
Half at the higher rate = 2,353,718 = £176,528,888
Half at the lower rate = 2,353,718 = £117,685,900
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£294,214,788
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Then half for moving traffic = 4,707,437 = £376,594,960
A single rate of £160 for moving traffic ------------
Total revenues from PCNs = £670,809,748
Now of course this is only a rough approximation and omits the revenue from lost cases at London Tribunals. It also, assumes every PCN paid is paid at the discounted rate. But this is not so, with it estimated that discount payments represent between 55 and 65%, the remainder being paid at the full rate.
So my total revenues from PCNs in the London are is an underestimate. It is likely that over £700 million is now being collected. The PCN totals I assume include ULEZ and Congestion Charge, and Lorry Control Scheme, where the penalties are much higher but I have just included these in the moving traffic figures. but ULEZ and CC PCNs are £180 discount rate £90
A more detailed figure can be obtained by goiing through the reports of very London council and TfL to get the detail and hence an accurate figure, which I reckon would take the total past £700 million a year.
A Nice Little (!!!) Earner