GLOSSARY OF TERMS FOR PARKING

If you have a query on a parking ticket, congestion charge or you may be considering a complaint, you should find the following Glossary of Terms helpful.

Additional Parking Charges
Charges imposed in addition to any initial charge for parking when your PCN remains unpaid. They include the penalty charge and charges for the release of clamped vehicles and for retrieving vehicles after they have been removed.

Adjudication
The second and final statutory opportunity for you to contest a Penalty Charge Notice through an appeal to a Parking Adjudicator. All Parking Adjudicators are independent solicitors or barristers who have been in practice for at least five years. The decision of a Parking Adjudicator is final and binding on both parties to an appeal.

Appeal
The act of referring a dispute, concerning a Penalty Charge Notice, (and possibly the clamping or removal of a vehicle), to an independent Parking Adjudicator. You may only appeal after the council which issued the Penalty Charge Notice has rejected a formal representation and appeals may only be made on certain, specified grounds.

Authorisation Notice
The notice issued by a Parking Attendant to indicate that a vehicle, already issued with a Penalty Charge Notice is to be clamped or removed.

Bus Lane Adjudicator
An independent solicitor or barrister of at least five years professional standing, appointed under Regulation 11 of Part 5 of the Bus Lane Contraventions (Penalty Charge, Adjudication and Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2005 to consider appeals against Penalty Charge Notices issued under the terms of those Regulations.

Bus Lane Adjudication Service Joint Committee
The committee created in accordance with Regulation 12 of the Bus Lane Contravention (Penalty Charge Notice, Adjudication and Enforcement) (England) Reg: 2005, to appoint Bus Lane Adjudicators and to provide administrative support for the service.

Cancellation
The action taken to cancel a Penalty Charge Notice and/or NtO and the need to pay the associated additional parking charges,

Certificated Bailiff
In order to recover parking debts, the bailiff by law has to be a Certificated Bailiff. This is provided under Section 78 (6) of the Road Traffic Act 1991. In addition, under the London Local Authorities Bill , Section 102, (Enforcement of Penalty Charges) Paragraph 5 ( Sub Heading: "Certificated Bailiffs" it states by law the following:

• “A Person who is not a Certificated Bailiff, but who purports to levy distress as such a (Certificated) Bailiff, and any person authorising him to levy, shall be deemed to have committed an offence of trespass”.

Charge Certificate
If payment has not been made within the time allowed, and if you have not objected to the Parking Charge Notice, the case is sent to Northampton County Court, Traffic Enforcement Centre. It is at this time that the debt then increases by 50%. If the original Parking Charge Notice was £100 the debt is increased to £150. An additional amount of £5 is also added for court fees, bringing the total to £155. You have just 14 days if actual registration of the debt is to be avoided, after which a warrant is issued to bailiffs.

Contravention
A contravention occurs if you fail to comply with parking controls which have been decriminalised.

Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ)
An area where parking is restricted by Traffic Regulation Orders, (Traffic Management Orders in London), in accordance with signs placed on all vehicular entry points to the area (except in designated parking bays or where otherwise signed).

Costs
The Adjudicator has very limited powers to award costs against either party to an appeal. The grounds for doing so are very few and such awards are extremely rare. Costs may be awarded if in the opinion of the Adjudicator either party has behaved in a “frivolous, vexatious or wholly unreasonable” fashion.

County Court
The government allocated just one court for dealing with all Penalty Charge Notices. It is referred to as the Traffic Enforcement Centre and is attached to Northampton County Court and is commonly referred to as TEC. This is where the debt is registered following non payment of the Penalty Charge Notice fourteen days after the service of a Charge Certificate.

Debt Registration
The process of recording a parking or bus lane debt with the Traffic Enforcement Centre at the Northampton County Court, no fewer than fourteen days after the service of a Charge Certificate and where the penalty charge due has not been paid. (This is different in Scotland). The registration of debt is an automated process and you are not allowed to attend in person.

Decriminalisation
The Road Traffic Act 1991 provided Local Authorities the authority to take over parking enforcement themselves, with London Boroughs being the first ones to do so in July 1994. Previously, car parking enforcement was carried out by the Police and if you obtained a parking ticket you were committing a criminal offence and the debt was pursued through the Magistrates Court. Under decriminalsisation the debt is now a civil not criminal debt.

Debt Registration.
The process of recording a parking debt with the Traffic Enforcement Centre at Northampton County Court, not sooner than 14 days after the service of the Charge Certificate.

Discount Rate
This is the reduction in the price of your parking charge notice if you take advantage of the 14 day period. This discount is available throughout London as determined by the ALG and applies also to bus lane contraventions.

Dispensation
An agreement to allow a vehicle, to park in a restricted area, without penalty, for an agreed duration and without the need to pay any initial parking charge. Dispensations are issued by or on behalf of the council and an administrative charge may be made for this service. Dispensations are typically granted in limited circumstances where alternative provision cannot be made, for example to enable work to take place at adjacent premises or for essential deliveries which will take longer than the maximum time permitted.

DVLA
Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency based in Swansea.

Exemption
Certain vehicles are exempt from some parking restrictions, Examples of these vehicles are those statutory undertakers when on duty, removal lorries and lorries involved in loading and unloading.

Enforcement Notice
This is a Statutory Notice to be served by the local authority on the person believed by them to be the owner of a vehicle issued with a Penalty Charge Notice for a bus lane contravention where the debt remains unpaid after 28 days. The Enforcement Notice requires the owner within 28 days to either make payment of the full penalty charge or: make representations against liability for the charge.

False Declaration
If you provide false information when submitting a statutory declaration, appeal papers for the adjudicators etc which you know to be untrue.This is referred to as a false declaration which is a criminal offence and you risk a fine or even conviction.

Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN)
These are different from Penalty Charge Notices in that they are used by the police and police traffic wardens to motorists committing parking offences that are governed by criminal law.

Grounds for Parking Appeals
The Road Traffic Act 1991 details the legal grounds which you can use for making a representation against a Penalty Charge Notice. In the event that the council rejects your representation, these same grounds can be used in the event that you wish the matter to be taken to the adjudicator. The grounds for representation (and appeal) against a Penalty Charge Notice are as follows:

• The alleged parking contravention did not occur.
• The penalty charge, (or release or storage charge), exceeded the relevant amount.
• The Traffic Regulation Order was invalid.
• You were not the owner of the vehicle when the alleged contravention occurred.
• When the vehicle was parked it had been taken without your consent.
• You are a hire company and have supplied the hirer’s name and address.
If the vehicle has been clamped or removed, grounds (4) and (6) do not apply, but the following, additional grounds apply:
• The vehicle was clamped or removed when a disabled person’s badge was on display.
• The vehicle was clamped or removed when less than 15 minutes had elapsed since the paid time expired. You should offer any evidence in your possession that may support your case. This may include copies of any pay and display tickets, photographs or even witness statements. Do not send originals…and keep a copy.

Grounds for Bus Lane Appeals
The Regulations provide 8 legal grounds of appeal:

• The alleged bus lane contravention did not occur.
• The police are already taking action.
• You were not the owner of the vehicle at the time the alleged contravention occurred.
• You were the hirer of the vehicle at the time but did not enter into an agreement assuming liability for any contraventions.
• You are a vehicle hire firm and have supplied the name and address of the hirer.
• When the bus lane contravention occurred, the vehicle was kept by a vehicle trader.
• When the contravention occurred, the vehicle had been taken without your consent.
• The penalty charge exceeded he relevant amount

Hire Vehicles
Vehicles are normally hired under an agreement which conforms with The Road Traffic (Owner Liability) Regulations 2000. This transfers liability for any Penalty Charge Notice (and other contraventions or offences) from the hire company, as the owner of the vehicle, to the hirer of the vehicle.

Initial Charge
The basic charge set for parking in a designated parking bay, for specified users at specified times. Each local authority sets it’s own initial charges.

Loading Bay
A specific bay, bounded by white markings (red on Priority (Red) Routes in London) and signed to permit loading and unloading by goods vehicles. Waiting and parking is not permitted within these bays.

Loading Gap
An area of yellow line within a permitted parking place, on which waiting and parking is restricted but loading or unloading is allowed. Such gaps are considered to be permitted parking and are enforceable as such by councils.

Ministry of Justice ( previously Department of Constitutinal Affairs)
The Government Department with responsibility for determining the procedures to be used to register parking debts and to obtain warrants of execution and the requirements that all bailiffs must meet to be certificated. The Lord Chancellor also has to approve the appointment of adjudicators

National Parking Adjudication Service (NPAS)
This is the independent adjudication service for hearing appeals outside of London. NPAS consist of adjudicators, all part time, and they must be barristers or solicitors with at least 5 years standing. They are entirely independent of the Councils. There is no fee to pay for taking your case to the adjudicators. Your case can be heard by post, in person or by telephone conference call. On average 60% of appeals are allowed by the adjudicators.

Notice of Acceptance
This is the letter sent to you by the local authority to advise you that they have accepted your representation and advising that either the Notice to Owner or Parking Charge Notice has been cancelled.

Notice of Rejection (NoR)
This is the letter sent to you by the local authority to advise you that they have rejected your representation. In the letter they will advise you of that you can then take the case to the adjudicator or that you should pay the penalty charge notice.

Notice to Owner (NtO)
This is the statutory notice served on you by the council. It is served on the person believed by them to be the owner of a vehicle issued with a Penalty Charge Notice that has remained unpaid after 28 days.
A Notice to Owner will not be issued in regards to bus lane contraventions (outside London)

The Notice to Owner requires that you either:

• make payment of the full penalty charge within 28 days, or;
• make formal representation against liability for the charge on one of the statutory grounds allowed, again within 28 days.

Notice of Appeal (NoA)
This is where you start an appeal by sending a Notice of Appeal to the adjudicator you will need to include your Notice of Rejection.

NPAS
see: National Parking and Adjudication Service.

Offence
This is the term used to describe a breach of the criminal law. Parking enforcement under the Road Traffic Act 1991 has been made a civil matter – thus the term “contravention” and not “offence” should be used in connection with decriminalised enforcement.
Bus Lane contraventions may be enforced by the police as a criminal offence or by the council as a civil matter.

Order for Recovery
This is the Statutory Notice issued to you to advise that an unpaid penalty charge has been registered as a debt at the Traffic Enforcement Centre at the County Court. It will contain details of the contraventions, and guidance notes on how to complete the Statutory Declaration form that accompanies it.

Parking Attendant (PA)
The name given in the Road Traffic Act 1991, to those officers, engaged by councils, to issue Penalty Charge Notices. They can be either council or contractor staff. In London there are approx: 1,600 parking attendants!!

Parking and Traffic Appeals Service (PATAS)
The independent adjudication service for hearing appeals outside of London. NPAS consist of adjudicators, all part time, and they must be barristers or solicitors with at least 5 years standing. They are entirely independent of the Councils. There is no fee to pay for taking your case to the adjudicators. Your case can be heard by post, in person or by telephone conference call. On average 60% of appeals are allowed by the adjudicators.

PE2 – Order for Recovery Form, issued following registration of an unpaid penalty charge at the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) at Northampton County Court.

PE3 – Form for making a Statutory Declaration.

Penalty Charge Notice (PCN)
This is the document that must be either attached to your windscreen or handed to you in person which is used to indicate that a contravention is believed to have occurred. In relation to parking charges, the Penalty levels are divided into three bands. Band A applies primarily to inner and central London and the main town centers; band B applies to the rest of outer London; band C is generally used in car parks and in outer London.
The current penalty levels are:

Band A: £100
Band B: £80
Band C: £60

Penalty Charge Notice in respect of a Bus Lane contravention
A notice issued by a council to a person appearing to be the owner of a vehicle which the council believes was in a Bus Lane in contravention of the councils’ Traffic Regulation Order.

Penalty Charge Notice in respect of a parking contravention
A notice issued by a Parking Attendant to a vehicle or to the person appearing to be in charge of a vehicle which is believed to be parked in contravention of the council’s TRO/TMO. A Penalty Charge Notice must contain certain information, including a description of which contravention is alleged to have occurred.

Persistent Evaders
The term used in respect of motorists who persistently incur Penalty Charge Notices and fail to make payment. There are provisions where your car can be clamped or removed in the event that you have three or more outstanding PCN’s.

Persistent Offenders
The term used in respect of motorists who persistently receive Penalty Charge Notices but who make payment.

Pound
A secure place to which a removed vehicle is taken for storage until it is retrieved by the owner upon payment of the additional parking charges. The Association of London Government (ALG) operates an organisation by the name of TRACE for this. For further details see TRACE below.

Priority Routes (Red Routes)
A network of major roads, within London, specified by the Secretary of State as key roads, where traffic flow is to be maintained. The Metropolitan Police retain responsibility for the enforcement of waiting and loading restrictions on red routes although permitted parking is enforced by the council through whose area the red route runs.

Registered Keeper
The person or organisation recorded at Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency as being the keeper of a vehicle. Under the concept of “owner liability”, councils may assume that the registered keeper is also the owner of the vehicle for the purposes of enforcement. This is a common ground for appeal.

Road Traffic Act 1991 (RTA 1991)
The Act of Parliament that decriminalised certain parking offences, making them civil not criminal contraventions, enforceable by local authorities.

Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 (RTRA 1984)
The Act of Parliament which provided many of the powers for councils to control parking in their area, which have now been incorporated in the decriminalised regime brought in by the Road Traffic Act 1991.

RUCAT
This is the Road User and Charging Adjudicator. This adjudication service only hears appeals against Congestion Charge Notices issued in London by Transport for London. They consist of 36 adjudicators, and for the period 2005/06 RUCAT received 48,277 appeals of which 28,121 were allowed resulting in the Congestion Charge Notice being cancelled.

Scottish Parking Appeals Service (SPAS)
The independent adjudication service in respect of Penalty Charge Notices issued within Scotland.

Statement of Liability
Part of the agreement signed by the hirer of a vehicle accepting that the hirer accepts liability, as if he were the owner, in respect of Penalty Charge Notices issued to the vehicle during the hire period. A hire agreement must contain the particulars required by the Road Traffic (Owner Liability) Regulations 2000 to enable the hire company to transfer liability in this fashion.

Statutory Declaration.
A formal statement from the motorist in response to notice of debt registration to the effect that an earlier stage in the procedure had not been completed and that the motorist was therefore not aware of what they should have done before registration. A valid statutory declaration cancels the Order for Recovery, the Charge Certificate and sometimes the Notice to Owner in parking contraventions and the Enforcement Notice in bus lane contraventions. It does not cancel the Penalty Charge Notice. It does however cancel the 50% increase in the penalty charge notice. It is a criminal offence to willfully make a false statutory declaration.

Time extensions.
Additional time that you may be allowed in which to file the Statutory Declaration.

Time order extension.
An order granting, or refusing, an extension of time for filing the Statutory Declaration once an application for extension has been considered by the Traffic Enforcement Centre.

Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC)
Attached to Northampton County Court Bulk Centre, this is the centre that has been set up where unpaid penalty charges are registered as debts at the County Court. This is an automated process, not requiring, or allowing an appearance by any party. (The procedure is different in Scotland).

Traffic Regulation Order (TRO)
An official order made by a local authority under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and which details the nature and extent of parking controls within the council’s area. It is a contravention of these controls as detailed in a TRO that may give rise to the issuing of a Penalty Charge Notice. The same Orders are frequently known as Traffic Management Orders (TMOs) within London.

TRACE
This is the service operated by ALG which receives details of the vehicles that have been removed in London and this is where you should first call if you believe that your car has been removed. Their telephone number is: 0207-747-4747.

Transport Act 2000
The Act of Parliament that enables Local Authorities to enforce bus lane contraventions as civil contraventions where a SPA or PPA order is in force.

Tribunal
An independent body created to provide a simple, accessible system of justice, where you may appeal against administrative decisions made by the state. The National Parking Adjudication Service is one such tribunal.

Vehicle Registration Mark (VRM)
This refers to the “number plate” of a vehicle.

Vehicle Excise Disk (VED)
The tax disk of a vehicle. It also bears a unique serial number.

Warrant of Execution
Authority issued by the county court to enforce an unpaid debt, following registration at the TEC. Warrants must be in the possession of a certificated bailiff when attempts are made to recover the debt. (The procedure is different in Scotland). Only Certificated Bailiffs can recover Traffic Debts. See Certificated Bailiffs in this Glossary for more information.

Warrant expiry
A warrant has a ‘life’ of 12 months from the date of issue. The TEC will automatically mark a warrant as expired if one year and seven days has elapsed since the date it was entered onto the system. (The extra seven days allow for posting and drawing up the warrant. Our advice would be to telephone TEC to request the date of the Warrant.

Withdraw warrant
A local authority may withdraw any warrant for any reason. There is no need to inform the TEC of withdrawal unless the local authority requests a transfer for another form of enforcement.