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of PCN appeals against Gwynedd Council are won
The Traffic Penalty Tribunal recorded 243 outcomes for appeals against Gwynedd Council from 2013/14 to 2024/25, and 181 of them ended with the driver paying nothing. That is 20.1 points better than the 54.4% tribunal average.
What the parking is worth. In its 2024-25 return to the Welsh Government, Gwynedd Council reported £2.9m of parking income and a surplus of £1.4m after running costs. Wales reports parking as a single service, so unlike England there is no published figure for how much of that came from penalties rather than from people paying to park, and we are not going to estimate one. A surplus is not profit either: on-street surpluses have to be spent on transport under section 55 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984.
126 of those 181 wins were uncontested. In 69.6% of the appeals Gwynedd 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 77.5% of appeals against Gwynedd Council, from 129 outcomes. In 2022/23 to 2024/25 it was 73.2%, from 41. The rate has held broadly steady across the decade.
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| Year | Allowed | Not contested | Refused | Won |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013/14 | 8 | 20 | 11 | 70% |
| 2014/15 | 10 | 16 | 12 | 68% |
| 2015/16 | 12 | 34 | 5 | 90% |
| 2016/17 | 4 | 12 | 2 | 89% |
| 2017/18 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 75% |
| 2018/19 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 67% |
| 2019/20 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 45% |
| 2020/21 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 60% |
| 2021/22 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 69% |
| 2022/23 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 92% |
| 2023/24 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 92% |
| 2024/25 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 47% |
| All years | 55 | 126 | 56 | 74.5% |
Busiest year: 2015/16, with 51 appeals decided. A further 6 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 74.5%, not lower. Among the 203 authorities in England outside London and in Wales with enough appeals to compare, Gwynedd Council ranks 9th 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 |
|---|---|
| Coventry City Council | 77.3% of 3,093 |
| Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council | 76.1% of 402 |
| City of Wolverhampton Council | 75.1% of 1,329 |
| Gwynedd Council (this page) | 74.5% of 243 |
| Guildford Borough Council | 74.4% of 125 |
| Bassetlaw District Council | 73.9% of 153 |
| Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council | 72% of 243 |
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. Only parking penalties appear in its record. A tribunal outcome depends on the evidence in that particular case, so nothing here predicts yours.