Pay a penalty charge notice
A penalty charge notice is issued by the council to vehicles which are parked in contravention of the Off-street Parking Order (2005).
Do not ignore a penalty charge notice if you have received one. You should respond to it as soon as possible.
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Paying a penalty charge notice
We have been notified that some residents have been sent a scam text requesting to pay a parking fine. We do not contact residents by text if you have a parking fine.
The amount you have to pay will depend upon how soon you pay the penalty charge notice.
- If you pay within 14 days of issue, the charge can be reduced by 50%.
- If no payment is received within 28 days of issue, we will apply to DVLA for the registered vehicle owner's name and address. On receipt of this information, we will send a notice to owner (NtO).
- If no appeal has been lodged or payment made 28 days after the NtO, a charge certificate is issued and the charge increases by 50%.
Pay online
You can pay online with your credit or debit card.
Payment cannot be made online until the day after the penalty charge notice has been issued.
Pay penalty charge notice online
Pay by phone
You can pay by phone using our automated telephone payment service 0300 4560626 (24 hours).
This service is only available from 24 hours after the issue of the penalty charge notice.
To pay over the phone using your credit or debit card call, 023 8028 5000, during normal office hours Monday to Thursday 8.30am to 5.15pm and Friday 8.30am to 4.45pm.
Pay in person
You can pay in person at one of our Information offices.
Challenge a penalty charge notice
You may wish to challenge the issue of a penalty charge notice.
Matters relating to a penalty charge notice can lead to a debt being registered at the County Court.
All challenges must be submitted in writing, whether online or hard copy.
If a challenge is not received within 14 days of the issue of a penalty charge notice, the full charge will apply if your challenge is unsuccessful.
You can challenge your penalty charge notice using the online form below.
Challenge a penalty charge notice
Notice to owner letter
If payment of a Penalty Charge Notice has not been received 28 days after issue, we will send a notice to owner (NtO) letter to the registered owner of the vehicle.
An notice to owner provides a final chance to pay the penalty charge notice or make a representation, which means appealing against the issue of the notice.
Representations must be made in writing, using the form incorporated in the notice to owner letter or using the online representation form below.
Any completed forms must be posted to the Parking Office.
If this representation is successful, the penalty charge notice will be cancelled.
If it is not successful, we will send you a notice of rejection letter. You can then either pay the full charge or appeal to Traffic Penalty Tribunal.
Traffic Penalty Tribunal
Details of how to appeal
If you wish to appeal your notice of rejection letter, you will need to appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.
The Traffic Penalty Tribunal is an independent organisation where a lawyer will examine your case. They will not charge you to appeal. The decision by Traffic Penalty Tribunal is final and binding on both sides.
In certain circumstances, when all efforts to recover the outstanding penalty charge notice amount (including any increased amounts relating to charge certificates) have failed, we may decide to register the charge as a debt at the County Court.
The debt will then be placed with independent enforcement agents who take full responsibility for collecting the debt. This will add further costs to the charge.
Policy guidelines for the enforcement and cancellation of penalty charge notices
All penalty charge notice cases are regulated by our enforcement policy, which you can download below.
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