Council acted unreasonably — claim your appeal costs

In Scotland, if you appeal a penalty charge notice and the council behaved unreasonably — for example by ignoring a clear argument you raised or refusing to share evidence — the tribunal can not only cancel your ticket but also order the council to pay your reasonable costs. Those costs can include travel to the hearing, time you took off work, and the time you spent preparing your case. This is stronger than the appeal systems in England, where cost awards against councils are very rare.

Legal basis

SSI 2021/177 reg 9(4)(e); Tribunals (Scotland) Act 2014 s.39; FtT GRC Rules of Procedure

How to identify this in your case

Council rejected representations without engaging with ground raised; failed to disclose ANPR record; issued PCN despite obvious exemption.

Sample appeal wording

[Add to FtT appeal grounds:] In addition to seeking cancellation of the penalty under reg 8(4)[GROUND], the Appellant requests an award of expenses under the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (General Regulatory Chamber) Rules of Procedure. The local authority has acted unreasonably: it failed to address [SPECIFIC GROUND] in its NoR; failed to provide the approved-device record within 14 days of my reg 6(5)(n) request; and/or issued the PCN despite the [exemption / grace period / sale] being plainly evident from documents supplied with my representations. The Appellant's reasonable expenses to date are £[AMOUNT], itemised at Annex A.

Replace [PARKING DATE], [NtK DATE] etc. with your own dates before sending.

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Council acted unreasonably — claim your appeal costs

Legal basis

How to identify this in your case

Sample appeal wording

Beat It writes this argument automatically

Sources

Related appeal grounds

Next steps