ANNUAL REPORT

ON
CIVIL PARKING ENFORCEMENT

2009-2010
 What happened this year?

The number of penalty charge notices issued for parking contraventions has
continued to decline as Oxfordshire County Council and their enforcement
contractor have continued to work to the requirements of the latest legislation.
This places greater emphasis on keeping the streets clear of obstructions and
less on issuing penalty charge notices on every occasion.

The deterrent effect of the differential charging rates introduced nationwide in

March 2008 continues to have an impact. The higher penalty charge rate
applies to those contraventions that are considered as more serious. This
year twice as many PCNs were issued for the more serious contraventions as
for those considered less serious. This further supports the change in
emphasis towards keeping the roads clear.

Within these figures there are two notable statistics. The number of penalty
charge notices issued in connection with the misuse of disabled parking bays
increased from 1980 to 2565, an increase of over 29%. This demonstrates
the council’s commitment to ensure that this important provision is kept clear
for those who need it.

The number of penalty charge notices issued in residents’ and other permit
parking bays has not reduced to same degree as the overall number of
notices. This shows a commitment to patrolling the residential areas that was
given when charges for permits were introduced.

What happened to the Penalty Charge Notices issued?

PCN Paid at Paid in Cancelled after Cancelled for Outstanding

Issues Discount full challenge or other
representation reasons or
written off
TOTALS 39345 25261 4426 5244 930 3482*

Of the penalty charge notices issued 26628 (68%) were for the higher level
penalty charge and 12717 (32%) were issued for the less severe
contraventions.

The overall payment rate is 86%

* Includes 96 cases where a part payment has been made and the balance is
being pursued.
Wider Civil Enforcement in Oxfordshire

The current Local Transport Plan aspires to introduce Civil Parking

Enforcement throughout Oxfordshire. A major step forward was taken during
this year when Oxfordshire County Council applied to the Department for
Transport for civil enforcement powers for the District of West Oxfordshire.

West Oxfordshire District Council commenced the civil enforcement of parking

restrictions on 25th January 2010 under an agency agreement with
Oxfordshire County Council.

For the period of this report there were just over two months during which civil
parking enforcement has been carried out, including a period at the start when
predominately warning notices were issued. This report is only concerned
with the on-street part of the operation and to date the following number of
penalty charge notices have been issued in the District of West Oxfordshire:

Total on-street Higher penalty Lower penalty Overall payment

PCNs issued. charge rate charge rate percentage
367 252 115 78%

The majority of penalty charge notices have been issued for parking in a
restricted street (230) and for staying longer that allowed in free parking bays
(107).

The council is now in discussions with Cherwell District Council to see if civil
enforcement powers might be extended to that district.

Controlled Parking Zones and Residents’ parking.

The number of controlled parking zones remained unchanged during 2009/10.

One of the proposed zones is still under consultation and as the two zones
are adjacent to each other they cannot be introduced at different times.

The reviews of the more long-standing zones have continued. West Oxford
has been completed and the East Oxford zone has been reviewed. The
implementation of the changes to the East Oxford zone has been delayed by
the severe weather this winter but will be completed shortly.

This review process will continue in 2010/11.

 Residents’ parking permits

The number of residents’ permits in circulation in April 2010 was 9659

The number of business permits is circulation in April 2010 was 279

The income from these charges was as follows:

Residents’ permits £326,518

Business permits £27,260
Visitors’ scratchcards £9600

Following concerns expressed by residents a change in the eligibility criteria

for the issue of residents’ permits was introduced in January 2010. Now, as
well as providing proof of residency, the applicant has to show that the vehicle
is registered at the address for which the permit is requested.

Financial information

Each year the council is required to provide a parking account showing

expenditure and income. The parking account for the financial year 2009/10
is shown here. There are strict controls on how the surplus from a parking
account can be spent.

The 2009/10 parking account is as follows:

Oxford City Oxford City Oxford City TOTALS

On Street Parking Residents’
Pay & Display Enforcement Parking Zones

INCOME

Pay & Display £1,501,500 £1,501,500

income
Penalty Charge £179,393 £629,834 £411,569 £1,224,796
Notices
Residents’ permits £370,911 £370,911

Total income £1,680,893 £629,834 £782,480 £3,093,217

 EXPENDITURE

Equipment £117,693 £181,436 £117,693 £416,822

purchase
Contract Costs £334,067 £485,175 £375,775 £1,195,017

Council Staff £19,838 £61,920 £50,498 £132,256

costs
Parking shop £6,518 £13,037 £110,812 £130,367
costs
Other £5,674 £57,371 £153,777 £216,842

Total £483,790 £798,939 £805,555 £2,091,304

Expenditure

Balance £1,197,103 -£169,105 -£22,075 £1,005,923

Please note that these figures have been produced prior to the finalising
of the council’s accounts and are therefore subject to external audit.
This is likely by the end of September 2010.

Appeals against Penalty Charge Notices

There will be cases when the owner of the vehicle to which a penalty charge
notice has been issued is not satisfied with a decision made by a council
officer to uphold the notice.

As parking enforcement is decriminalised under the Traffic Management Act

2004 the matter is no longer resolved in a Magistrates’ court, as this deals
with criminal offences. An appeals service, known as the Traffic Penalty
Tribunal, is in place to enable vehicle owners to have the case decided by an
independent adjudicator working under tribunal law.

Each year the adjudicators produce a report on their activities. This report
covers a variety of issues, including some of the more challenging cases that
have come before them, and is available to download from their website. The
report also contains a variety of tables that compares all the Local Authorities
in England and Wales that are undertaking Civil Parking Enforcement. Their
latest report was not available at the time that this report was written but the
statistics for 2008/9 have been provided

Appeals process

The Traffic Management Act 2004 continued by and large with the
adjudication process that had been set out in the Road Traffic Act 1991.
Outside London this appeals service had been operated by the National
Parking Adjudication Service (NPAS). Vehicle owners who believed that a
penalty charge notice that they had been served with was incorrectly or
unfairly issued had the opportunity to have their case decided by an
independent adjudicator. Within the TMA 2004 there were some changes,
mainly intended to provide more information to the motorist. The stationery
used for parking enforcement, such as the penalty charge notice and notice to
owner, was redesigned to include much more information about the appeals
process and to explain how it worked. Concern had been expressed in the
consultation process leading up to the TMA 2004 that many drivers did not
know that they could appeal against a penalty charge notice.

Along with the introduction of the TMA 2004 the adjudication service changed
its name to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. This was done to reflect the wider
enforcement role foreseen in the Act (and already being undertaken in
London) involving moving traffic contraventions such as banned turns and
obstructing yellow box junctions.

Adjudications and Appeals

The Traffic Penalty Tribunal provides annual statistics for all the local
authorities that undertake Civil Parking Enforcement. These are very useful in
that they enable authorities to see how their operation compares with others.
From these statistics the following comparisons can be drawn.

1. The percentage of penalty charge notices against which an appeal

was lodged with the National Parking Adjudication Service was, at
0.28%, lower than the national mean of 0.31%.
2. The percentage of appeals upheld by the adjudicators was, at 25%,
lower than the national mean of 29%.
3. 25% of the appeals lodged at the appeals service were eventually not
contested by the council at the hearing, normally as a result of the
appellant providing new evidence. This is lower than the national
mean of 34%.
4. Overall the number of cases taken to appeal that were subsequently
upheld or the appeal withdrawn by the appellant was 44%. This
compares with the national figure of 35%

The fact that on all these indicators Oxfordshire is performing better than the
national mean would tend to demonstrate the following:

• The enforcement continues to be carried out correctly and fairly.

• The opportunity is taken at the various stages in the process before

adjudication to review the issue of the notice and exercise discretion or
mitigation when appropriate.

There has been a slight increase throughout England and Wales in the
number of penalty charge notices that are decided at adjudication. The Traffic
Management Act 2004 made changes to the various documents sent to
drivers and the vehicle owners to ensure that everyone knew their rights to
appeal. This is intended to improve transparency and accessibility of the
appeals process and is likely to be the reason for the increase in the
percentage of appeals lodged with the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.
Useful contacts

Oxfordshire County Council www.oxfordshire.gov.uk

Parking shop 0845 634 4466

email parking-shop@oxfordshire.gov.uk

Oxford City Council www.oxford.gov.uk

Traffic Penalty Tribunal www.trafficpenaltytribunal.gov.uk

Patrol (for information on PCN process) www.patrol-uk.info

Parking control room 0845 337 1138

(for any on-street parking enquiries) Option 1 for payments
Option 2 for permits
Option 3 to report issues
Option 4 for PCN enquiries
Option 5 for Suspensions

Thames Valley Police 0845 8505 505

(To report obstructive or dangerous parking)