What Has Happened:
From 23rd March 2015, Barrow Borough Council only has enforcement responsibilities on Council owned car parks. Responsibility for On-Street parking enforcement has returned to Cumbria County Council.
Motorists are required to abide by the parking restrictions on the car park on which they park. The Council appointed Civil Enforcement Officers (CEO) will issue any offending vehicle with a parking ticket called a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN). The liability for paying the parking penalty lies with the registered owner of the car, except for hire cars when it is the hirer under the hire agreement.
You will be liable to get a PCN if you are;
- Parked without payment of the parking charge
- Parked for longer than the maximum period permitted
- Parked in a restricted area of the car park
- Parked after the expiry of paid for time
- Parked in a permit bay without clearly displaying a valid pay and display ticket
- Parked in a permit bay without clearly displaying a valid permit
- Parked beyond the bay markings
- Parked in a disabled parking space without clearly displaying a valid disabled persons badge in the prescribed manner
- Parked in an electrical vehicle charging place without actively charging
These are the most common contraventions but do not cover all situations in which you could be issued with a PCN.
What Happens if you receive a PCN?
- Initially a PCN will cost either £70 or £50 depending on the contravention (see individual PCNs). Motorists who pay this within 14 days will receive 50% discount.
- If payment is not received within 14 days, the owner of the vehicle will be sent a statutory notice known as a Notice to Owner (NTO), which would allow them to pay the full £70/£50 or appeal.
- If payment or representations are still not made within 28 days of the NTO the Council will issue a Charge Certificate, the cost of the original penalty will increase by 50%.
- If the Charge Certificate is not paid the case will be registered as a civil debt at the County Court and this registration process increases the cost of the penalty by a further £5 registration fee. The penalty charges associated with PCN's are civil debts, due to the local authority and enforceable through a streamlined version of the normal civil debt recovery process.
- The Council has the option to recover any unpaid debts by the use of Bailiffs.
Parking fines can be paid online, by post or by telephone. You can pay your PCN in the following ways - personal cheque, credit/debit cards. A bar code letter can be issued to enable payment at the post office or any PayPoint outlet displaying the yellow PayPoint symbol. Full instructions on where and how payment can be made will be given with every PCN issued. Payment can be made during office hours on 01229 876390 or on the 24 hour payment line 08456031510.
You may also pay online at www.barrowbc.gov.uk
How to make online payments.
If you wish to challenge the issue of the PCN, your appeal must be put in writing and sent to:
Head of Business Support,
Borough of Barrow-in-Furness,
Town Hall,
Barrow-in-Furness,
Cumbria LA14 2LD
or, be sent by fax or e-mail (see Contact Details at the bottom of this page).
You can appeal within 14 days using our online form.
If your appeal is received after 14 days from the date of issue of the PCN, you will lose the opportunity to pay the reduced charge.
The Appeals Process
Following the issue of a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) the driver of the vehicle can make an informal representation to the Council if they believe they have grounds for appeal. The Council will consider the appeal and will either:-
- accept the appeal and cancel the PCN. In this case, no payment will be required.
- reject the appeal and advise the motorist of the reason why the appeal has been rejected.
If the informal appeal has been rejected by the Council, full details of how the Registered Keeper can make a formal appeal will be stated in the letter of rejection. This is the last point at which the 50% prompt payment discount will be accepted. Once a Notice To Owner (NTO) is served on the Registered Keeper, the full fine as shown on the PCN will become payable.
A Registered Keeper who receives an NTO and believes they were legally parked can make formal representations to the Council. The Traffic Management Act sets out the grounds only on which you can make representations. These are the only legal grounds for claiming that the PCN was incorrectly issued:
- The alleged contravention did not occur
- The penalty exceeded the relevant amount applicable to the circumstances of the case
- The Order which is alleged to have been contravened in relation to the vehicle concerned, except where it is an order to which Part VI of Schedule 9 to the 1984 Act (a) applies, is invalid
- You were not the owner/keeper of the vehicle at the time of the contravention
- The vehicle had been permitted to remain at rest in the place in question by a person who was in control of the vehicle without the consent of the owner
- You are a hire firm and have supplied the name of the person hiring the vehicle under a formal hire agreement
- There had been a procedural impropriety on the part of the enforcement authority
- In a case where a penalty charge notice was served by post on the basis that a civil enforcement officer was prevented by some person from fixing it to the vehicle concerned or handing it to the owner or person in charge of the vehicle, that no civil enforcement officer was so prevented
- That the notice to owner should not have been served because:-
(1) The penalty charge had already been paid in full;
(ii) The penalty charge had been paid, reduced by the amount of any discount set in accordance with Schedule 9 to the 2004 Act, within the period specified in paragraph 1(h) of the Schedule to the General Regulations.
The Council will consider your representation and if you have sufficient grounds, the Council will cancel the PCN and no payment will be required.
If the Council rejects the representation and the Registered Keeper is still not satisfied, they can appeal against the decision to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal Service where the appeals are dealt with by an independent adjudicator. The adjudicator deals with the appeals by post or, if the owner requests, at a personal hearing. The adjudicator's ruling is final. Details of the Adjudication Appeals procedure will be included in the letter of rejection.
Information regarding the appeals process is available on the website for the Traffic Penalty tribunal for England and Wales http://www.patrol-uk.info.
Penalty Charges - What the Money is Spent on:
Prior to the introduction of decriminalised parking enforcement in September 2001, the money collected from parking tickets issued by the police had gone directly to Central Government. Under the new arrangements the Local Authority in this case, Barrow Borough Council, will retain the proceeds from the penalty charges to finance the parking enforcement system and any surplus will be spent on local transport measures to benefit the local community.
- Any surplus income from Penalty Charge Notices must be used for traffic management purposes, under the provisions of section 55 of the road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. This includes spending directly related to parking, public transport and highway management.
