If you believe your penalty charge notice was wrongly issued, you can challenge it.

If you make your challenge within 14 days of the date when the notice was issued, you will typically have another chance to pay at the 50 per cent discounted rate if your challenge is rejected.

PCNs issued by Oxfordshire County Council

We are responsible for enforcing on-street parking, Bus Lane/gate, Zero Emission Zone and Moving Traffic restrictions in Oxfordshire. We also enforce Cherwell Car parks on behalf of Cherwell District Council

PCNs are issued for parking contraventions and driving through a Bus Lane/gate, Zero Emission Zone or Moving Traffic restriction. You will need to contest the PCN in writing.

Only the registered owner/keeper of the vehicle can appeal.

To appeal, you will need:

• PCN number
• vehicle registration number
• up to three documents or images as evidence 

We will respond to your enquiry via a secure email system called Egress. Our policy is to send all emails containing personal or sensitive information this way.

Within the response, you will need to click on the link within the email that states, 'read this secure email'. You must sign up for a free Egress account to read the message.

Other ways to appeal the PCN

You can use the form on the back of the Notice to Owner or the bus lane PCN.

Or write to:

Oxfordshire County Council PCN Processing Centre
PO Box 315
Sheffield
S98 1AE

Other types of parking ticket

For notices issued in the off-street car parks in Oxford or at either Peartree, Redbridge, Thornhill, Water Eaton or Seacourt park and rides, please contact Oxford City Council.

If your ticket was issued elsewhere in the county, please contact whoever issued it. Details will be on the back of your notice.

The process and what happens next

Parking penalty charge notices

Under statutory legislation, there are three stages to the process of challenging a parking PCN:

1. Informal challenge
2. Formal representation
3. Appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal (an independent adjudication service)

If the informal challenge has been rejected and the total penalty has not been paid within 28 days. In that case, the local authority will find out from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency who the vehicle's registered keeper was when the PCN was issued.  This person will be sent a Notice to Owner.

The Notice to Owner gives a further 28 days either to pay the full penalty charge or make formal representation to the council.  If the council rejects the representation, it will issue a Notice of Rejection enclosing details of why the representation was rejected and how to appeal to the independent adjudicator at the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. 

Please note, that an independent appeal to the adjudicator cannot be made unless the procedure above has been followed.

Find out more about the Traffic Penalties Tribunal.

Bus Lane, Zero Emission Zone or Moving Traffic PCNs

Under statutory legislation, there are two stages to the process of challenging a bus lane PCN:

1. Formal representation
2. Appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal (an independent adjudication service)

If the council rejects the representation, a Notice of Rejection will be issued with details of why the representation was rejected and also on how to appeal to the independent adjudicator at the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. 

Please note, an independent appeal to the adjudicator cannot be made unless the procedure above has been followed.

Find out more about the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.