of PCN appeals against Nottinghamshire County Council are won

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

The Traffic Penalty Tribunal recorded 2,446 outcomes for appeals against Nottinghamshire County Council from 2013/14 to 2024/25, and 1,523 of them ended with the driver paying nothing. That is 7.9 points better than the 54.4% tribunal average.

2,446appeals with an outcome

1,523won — nothing to pay

872refused

What the appeals were about

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

Penalty type	Outcomes	Not contested	Won
Parking	1,692	688	66.4%
Bus lane	754	236	53.1%

924 of those 1,523 wins were uncontested. In 60.7% of the appeals Nottinghamshire County 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 58.2% of appeals against Nottinghamshire County Council, from 918 outcomes. In 2022/23 to 2024/25 it was 59.6%, from 344. The rate has held broadly steady across the decade.

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Year by year

Year	Allowed	Not contested	Refused	Won
2013/14	66	60	73	63%
2014/15	129	97	123	65%
2015/16	74	108	186	49%
2016/17	77	99	113	60%
2017/18	73	86	81	63%
2018/19	60	68	77	61%
2019/20	33	92	48	71%
2020/21	14	70	21	79%
2021/22	33	79	27	77%
2022/23	16	64	37	65%
2023/24	16	47	29	66%
2024/25	8	54	57	50%
All years	599	924	872	62.3%

Busiest year: 2015/16, with 369 appeals decided. A further 51 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 62.3%, not lower. Among the 204 authorities in England outside London and in Wales with enough appeals to compare, Nottinghamshire County Council ranks 49th 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
Mansfield District Council	62.8% of 121
Gateshead Council	62.8% of 922
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council	62.8% of 145
Nottinghamshire County Council (this page)	62.3% of 2,446
Thurrock Council	62.3% of 795
Rushmoor Borough Council	62.2% of 135
Bath & NE Somerset County Council Council	62.2% of 148

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