of PCN appeals against Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council are won

Name: Penalty charge appeal outcomes for Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, 2013/14 to 2024/25
Creator: Traffic Penalty Tribunal

The Traffic Penalty Tribunal recorded 589 outcomes for appeals against Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council from 2013/14 to 2024/25, and 354 of them ended with the driver paying nothing. That is 5.7 points better than the 54.4% tribunal average.

589appeals with an outcome

354won — nothing to pay

223refused

Over the same period Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council told the tribunal it issued 369,130 penalty charge notices. Only 589 of them ever reached an adjudicator, roughly one in 627. Almost everyone pays, which is worth knowing before you assume a ticket must be fair because so few people fight it.

What the appeals were about

Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council enforces more than one kind of penalty, and drivers do not fare the same on each.

Penalty type	Outcomes	Not contested	Won
Parking	390	122	60.5%
Bus lane	199	97	59.3%

219 of those 354 wins were uncontested. In 61.9% of the appeals Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council lost, it put up no defence at the tribunal at all. That is the bulk of its losses, which tells you something plain: on most of the tickets that reach an adjudicator, the council would rather drop the case than argue it. Those tickets were not close calls. The authority had already given up on them, and the appeal was the only thing standing between the driver and a cancelled charge.

Is it getting easier or harder?

In 2013/14 to 2015/16, drivers won 63.2% of appeals against Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, from 144 outcomes. In 2022/23 to 2024/25 it was 53.5%, from 159. Drivers are doing worse now than they were, by 9.7 points, so do not lean on the older figures.

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Year by year

Year	Allowed	Not contested	Refused	Won
2013/14	11	11	26	46%
2014/15	18	11	11	73%
2015/16	10	30	15	71%
2016/17	9	14	25	47%
2017/18	6	1	6	47%
2018/19	7	10	7	71%
2019/20	13	55	34	65%
2020/21	7	31	12	73%
2021/22	13	12	17	60%
2022/23	25	11	31	53%
2023/24	5	12	16	50%
2024/25	11	21	23	56%
All years	135	219	223	60.1%

Busiest year: 2019/20, with 104 appeals decided. A further 12 appeals were closed by consent order across the period, which the tribunal counts separately because it can mean the driver agreeing to pay the original charge.

What this does and does not tell you

These are appeals that reached an independent adjudicator, which is the last stage. They leave out every ticket cancelled earlier, when you first challenge it or make formal representations, and that is where most successful challenges actually end. So your real chance of getting a ticket cancelled somewhere in the process is higher than 60.1%, not lower. Among the 203 authorities in England outside London and in Wales with enough appeals to compare, Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council ranks 67th for how often drivers win.

Two details worth knowing before you read too much into the number. The refused column includes appeals made after the deadline and appeals the driver withdrew, so it is not purely a record of arguments that lost on the evidence. And a small number of appeals each year finish with no outcome recorded against any of these categories, so the totals here are of appeals that reached a recorded outcome rather than of every appeal lodged.

Before you write

Find your contravention code. Every PCN carries a two digit code that says exactly what they claim you did, and what they have to prove. Look yours up.
Check the deadline. Discounts and rights both expire. Work out your dates.
Know how appeals work outside London. The Traffic Penalty Tribunal route, step by step.
Do not just ignore it. What actually happens if you do.

How similar authorities compare

Authority	Appeals won
Wrexham County Borough Council	60.5% of 124
Ipswich Borough Council	60.3% of 136
Fareham Borough Council	60.2% of 108
Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council (this page)	60.1% of 589
Dover District Council	60% of 185
Spelthorne Borough Council	60% of 150
Crawley Borough Council	59.9% of 217

Every authority we hold figures for, with sources →

Source: Traffic Penalty Tribunal, appeals data by authority, covering 2013/14 to 2024/25. The tribunal decides appeals for England outside London and for Wales, across parking, bus lane, moving traffic, clean air zone, river crossing and littering penalties. Every type Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council enforces is counted above. A tribunal outcome depends on the evidence in that particular case, so nothing here predicts yours.