of PCN appeals against Medway Council are won

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

The Traffic Penalty Tribunal recorded 1,490 outcomes for appeals against Medway Council from 2013/14 to 2024/25, and 789 of them ended with the driver paying nothing. That is close to the 54.4% tribunal average.

1,490appeals with an outcome

789won, nothing to pay

685refused

What the appeals were about

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

Penalty type	Outcomes	Not contested	Won
Parking	1,056	315	60.9%
Bus lane	234	63	48.7%
Moving traffic	200	11	16%

389 of those 789 wins were uncontested. In 49.3% of the appeals Medway Council lost, it put up no defence at the tribunal at all. Roughly a third to a half of its losses never got argued, so a properly written appeal has a real chance of being conceded before anyone reads the evidence. 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 61.9% of appeals against Medway Council, from 365 outcomes. In 2022/23 to 2024/25 it was 31.1%, from 489. Drivers are doing worse now than they were, by 30.8 points, so do not lean on the older figures.

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Year by year

Year	Allowed	Not contested	Refused	Won
2013/14	35	34	71	49%
2014/15	35	49	38	69%
2015/16	28	45	30	71%
2016/17	38	41	41	65%
2017/18	26	40	46	59%
2018/19	34	50	38	69%
2019/20	35	22	35	59%
2020/21	31	36	26	71%
2021/22	41	17	26	65%
2022/23	18	12	31	48%
2023/24	38	23	73	46%
2024/25	41	20	230	21%
All years	400	389	685	53%

Busiest year: 2024/25, with 293 appeals decided. A further 16 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 53%, not lower. Among the 203 authorities in England outside London and in Wales with enough appeals to compare, Medway Council ranks 113th 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
Torbay Council	53.4% of 1,542
Swindon Borough Council	53.4% of 899
Swale Borough Council	53.1% of 335
Medway Council (this page)	53% of 1,490
Wokingham Borough Council	53% of 508
Surrey County Council	52.8% of 487
Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council	52.3% of 682

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 Medway Council enforces is counted above. A tribunal outcome depends on the evidence in that particular case, so nothing here predicts yours.