Free Traffic Legal Advice

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In December, I received a higher charge PCN saying that the PCN doubled from £64 to £129. At this point I appealed on the grounds that the Council failed to maintain adequate road signage, and the loading bay was also unmarked. I stated that the Council have a responsibility to maintain clear signs, and this was in accordance with Regulation 18 of The Local Authorities' Traffic Orders (Procedure) (England and Wales) Regulations 1996.

I received no response from the Council, and in January I received a Charge Notice. I notified the Council that I received no response to my appeal, after which they wrote back to me via e-mail stating that the they had sent the letter notifying me that the appeal failed. The letter was attached to the e-mail and dated 23 December 2024. I have a feeling that this letter was backdated, as I received both the higher PCN charge and the charge notice, but somehow did not receive this.

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As I understand you, in December 2024 you received the Notice to Owner dated the 13th Dec. You then submitted a formal representation (challenge) to the Council.
When did you submit the representation and was it online or Royal Mail?


You then received an email.
When did the email arrive with you and please post up the text of the email. Redact your name & address and email address. Leave everything visible.

The letter dated the 23rd Dec does not appear to be a properly formatted Notice of Rejection. It does not say it's an NoR and there is no verification code for the London Tribunals. The code is required to submit an appeal to the Adjudicator. Nor does it state the timeframe for an appeal. The letter does give you 14 days beginning the 23rd Dec to pay the balance of £64. So it's arguably an out of process reminder letter and not a formal notice of rejection.

13/12/2024 = Fri = date of NTO and presumed date of posting
17/12/2024 = Tue = 2nd working day = deemed date of service = day 1 of 28 day relevant period
07/12/2025 = Tue = date of CC = day 22
13/01/2024 = Mon = day 28 of 28 day relevant period
14/01/2025 = Tue = day 29 = 1st day the Council could lawfully issue a CC

I'm wondering if it's better to wait for the Order for Recovery and to then submit a Witness Statement. Or try and submit an appeal to the Adjudicator immediately, without the code. See what others have to say.

Please look at the READ THIS FIRST - **BEFORE POSTING YOUR CASE!** sticky post at the top of the Forum.

You were told to only redact your name & address and to leave the vehicle reg and the PCN number visible. So please get that corrected.

The NTO is for £129 and should be £130.
The Charge Certificate is for £194 and should be £195.
The Charge Certificate is dated Jan 7th and that appears to be too early as the NTO was issued on the 13th Dec.

In addition there's a Notice of Rejection dated 23rd Dec which the OP says re-offers the discount payment but at £64 instead of £65.
And the NoR should still be in-time to submit an appeal.

Please post up all sides of all pages of the Notice of Rejection.

With private plates it seems that the emission details held by the DVLA go AWOL for a seemingly random amount of time. And it's unreliable. On top of that the TFL database is not live but relies on periodic synchronisation with the DVLA database. Your car might automatically register within a month or it might never register.

Your best bet is to manually register the car with TFL before you drive into the ULEZ. The instructions are here.

If you don't register you will very likely get PCNs which you'll have to challenge and appeal. If you nominate the car on AutoPay then you will be charged and you'll lose the will to live trying to get the money back. TFL will say it's your fault for not manually registering the car.

The Notice of Rejection is dated 19th Dec 2024. So the discount window of 14 days expired on the 1st Jan 2025.

So you're in for the full penalty charge of £180. In that case you might as well submit an appeal to the Adjudicator since you have no financial incentive to do otherwise. You never know, TFL might not contest.

That said it's possible the the discount is still showing online. In which case consider paying the £90.

As I understand the position.

You actually received PCN PN76007402 and
PCN date = 29/10/2024
Reps created = 10/11/2024
Online Representation date = 11/11/2024
Acknowledgement receipt date = 11/11/2024 22:13, Ack Ref = W26800139
Reps physically posted = 12/11/2024 & proof of posting received
Charge Cert date = 19/12/2024
Non statutory letter date = 06/01/2025

So for PCN PN76007402 you received the PCN and you submitted a representation online within the deadlines. You posted via Royal Mail your reps next day for good measure and obtained a proof of posting. The Council then issued a Charge Cert and a non-statutory follow up letter. The PCN currently sits at £195 due on their website.

All of the above being true then you need to sit tight and wait for them to register the debt with the Traffic Enforcement Centre which will add the £10 court fee to the amount due. Registering the debt allows them to issue and serve an Order for Recovery.

When you receive the Order for Recovery you can complete and submit to the TEC the Statutory Declaration (form PE3) that will be included. Tick the box that says "I made representations about the penalty charge to the local authority concerned within 28 days of the service of the Notice to Owner/Enforcement Notice/Penalty Charge Notice, but did not receive a rejection notice". One box only.

The TEC will order the OfR revoked and the CC cancelled and the case should be referred to the Adjudicator for direction on how to proceed. Standing practice is for the Council to re-serve the Notice of Rejection where one exists. You can then pay or submit an appeal to the Adjudicator. If no NoR exists then the Adjudicator will schedule a hearing, the case will be heard as if it were an appeal. You will be invited to make a submission and to attend in person or by phone.

As you are aware you don't actually have to receive the OfR in order to submit the SD. You can download the form, complete it, get it witnessed and email it to the TEC once you see that the charge due has increased to £205 from the current £195.

I wouldn't bother with any further follow up correspondence with Newham. They've had their chance.

I note the the Ack receipt for your reps doesn't actually quote the PCN number, just an enquiry number. Is that true of the online Ack emails for the other PCNs?

RE: PCNs PN62628875, PN62645400, PN62647643. These PCNs are all in Feb 2021. The V5c for your car was last updated 07/09/2021. So I would suggest that the Registered Keeper address was likely incorrect prior to Sept 2021 and this is why you did not receive any of the notices for these three PCNs. Sit tight with these as well.

Re: PN62628875, PN62645400, PN62647643. Have your received Orders for Recovery for each one? As I understand you all three are still sitting at £195. So I think no OfRs have been issued, so you cannot submit Statutory Declarations (form PE3).

You can get Statutory Declarations witnessed at a Magistrate's Court (or a Solicitor) but you will likely need an appointment and there will be a fee payable for each document. Not sure how much in Stratford, guesstimate £10. That said you can get SD's witnessed at a County Court for free. Some of the Court officials are authorised to witness documents. Any convenient County Court will do. However it's best to phone first and check the opening hours and make an appointment if that's what they want.

Do you want me to create a separate thread for PN62628875, PN62645400 & PN62647643? For the moment leave these three together, until a forum member asks you to separate. As things stand your case(s) and what has and has not happened is too confusing. And some of the members are easily confused.

Re: PN76007402. That's a separate thread already. I'll look into it and post back later.

There is no NTO (Notice to Owner) stage for your PCN. The Traffic Enforcement Centre at Northampton County Court upon receipt of your Statutory Declaration (SD) will order the Order for Recovery to be revoked and the Charge Certificate cancelled. The case should then be referred to the Adjudicator for direction on how to proceed, if TFL still want to enforce. The standing instruction from the Adjudicator is to re-serve the Notice of Rejection (NoR) where one has been issued and then lost in the post.

Upon receipt of the NoR you can either pay the PCN or appeal the matter to the Adjudicator.

We can discuss this further when you actually receive the new NoR, however at first sight I would then submit an appeal to the Adjudicator. The Adjudicator is likely to find that five months to issue and serve a Notice of Rejection is unreasonable, unless there are very good reasons for the delay. And will order the PCN cancelled.

The date on the court order is 20th December, which it says is the same day that I submitted the witness order.

Does the council re-offer the £65 discount should the appeal get rejected? Or is it a case of £65 to pay or £130 if I choose to appeal?

What date did you email your Witness Statement form to the TEC? The 18th Dec?

The recipient of the on-street PCN had 14 days beginning with the date of service (the date that the PCN was stuck onto the windscreen) to pay at the discount rate. That is now long since lapsed.

The NTO won't offer the discount, it will be for the full amount of £130. This is also true of the NTO that went missing. It's possible but unlikely that Newham will reoffer the discount if you submit formal representations against the NTO. So you might as well appeal to the Adjudicator as there is no financial incentive to do otherwise.

If this case gets to the Adjudicator then you would be liable for £130 if you lose the case, £0 payable if you win.

Newham need to get the new NTO served on you by the 16th Jan. So the latest day for them to issue and post it is Tuesday the 14th Jan. I wouldn't contact them in case they mess that up. And keep the envelope and make a note of when the NTO arrives in the post. Newham consider it acceptable to backdate documents and post them late.