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of PCN appeals against Salford City Council are won
The Traffic Penalty Tribunal recorded 1,697 outcomes for appeals against Salford City Council from 2013/14 to 2024/25, and 962 of them ended with the driver paying nothing. That is close to the 54.4% tribunal average.
Over the same period Salford City Council told the tribunal it issued 637,860 penalty charge notices. Only 1,697 of them ever reached an adjudicator, roughly one in 376. Almost everyone pays, which is worth knowing before you assume a ticket must be fair because so few people fight it.
What the tickets are worth. In its return to the government for 2024-25, Salford City Council reported £1.6m of income from parking fines. That is 59% of everything it earned from parking, so fines are roughly half the business alongside the charges people pay to park. Any surplus is not profit in the ordinary sense: on-street surpluses have to be spent on transport under section 55 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984.
What the appeals were about
Salford City Council enforces more than one kind of penalty, and drivers do not fare the same on each.
| Penalty type | Outcomes | Not contested | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parking | 1,029 | 482 | 67.9% |
| Bus lane | 668 | 131 | 39.4% |
613 of those 962 wins were uncontested. In 63.7% of the appeals Salford City 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 60.4% of appeals against Salford City Council, from 366 outcomes. In 2022/23 to 2024/25 it was 50.4%, from 381. Drivers are doing worse now than they were, by 10 points, so do not lean on the older figures.
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| Year | Allowed | Not contested | Refused | Won |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013/14 | 10 | 38 | 25 | 66% |
| 2014/15 | 16 | 49 | 47 | 58% |
| 2015/16 | 31 | 77 | 73 | 60% |
| 2016/17 | 64 | 64 | 74 | 63% |
| 2017/18 | 56 | 28 | 85 | 49% |
| 2018/19 | 43 | 42 | 50 | 62% |
| 2019/20 | 43 | 65 | 70 | 58% |
| 2020/21 | 21 | 49 | 36 | 61% |
| 2021/22 | 19 | 55 | 59 | 54% |
| 2022/23 | 28 | 55 | 52 | 61% |
| 2023/24 | 14 | 46 | 68 | 46% |
| 2024/25 | 4 | 45 | 62 | 43% |
| All years | 349 | 613 | 701 | 56.7% |
Busiest year: 2016/17, with 202 appeals decided. A further 34 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 56.7%, not lower. Among the 203 authorities in England outside London and in Wales with enough appeals to compare, Salford City Council ranks 89th 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 |
|---|---|
| Woking Borough Council | 57.2% of 327 |
| Bristol City Council | 57.1% of 7,769 |
| Peterborough City Council | 56.7% of 448 |
| Salford City Council (this page) | 56.7% of 1,697 |
| Hertsmere Borough Council | 56.2% of 251 |
| Brighton & Hove City Council | 56.2% of 7,115 |
| Buckinghamshire Council | 56.2% of 1,195 |
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 Salford City Council enforces is counted above. A tribunal outcome depends on the evidence in that particular case, so nothing here predicts yours.