Council not yet authorised to issue this PCN

Some councils only received the power to issue moving traffic PCNs in 2024. Your council must have been officially approved before it can enforce these rules. If your PCN was issued before your council received that approval, or before the correct signs were properly in place, the PCN cannot lawfully stand.

Legal basis

Traffic Management Act 2004 Part 6; Bus Lane Contraventions (Approved Local Authorities) Designation Order 2024; Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Approved Devices, Charging Guidelines and General Provisions) (England) Regulations 2022; TSRGD 2016

How to identify this in your case

Council newly granted moving traffic powers in 2024. Check the Designation Order date vs the contravention date and inspect signage against TSRGD 2016.

Sample appeal wording

Before you send this

Deadline. A late submission can be turned down without your argument being read. Check your notice for the deadline and how it is counted.
Paying may end it. Paying can count as accepting the notice and can close a challenge already under way. Part-paying or acknowledging an old debt can also revive a time limit that had expired.
The amount can change. Check what happens to the sum if you challenge — it may be held, re-offered lower, or keep rising, and fees or enforcement can continue meanwhile.
Use the official route. Use the method, recipient and form your notice specifies, with any reference, evidence and signature it asks for. Sent elsewhere, it may not count.
Only say what is true. Do not copy any statement of fact unless it is true for you, and check the legal point still applies. Delete what does not fit. It may be treated as your statement.
Careful what you volunteer. Avoid unnecessary admissions — naming the driver or accepting responsibility can remove arguments. But answer anything you are legally required to answer, and do include the evidence your ground needs.
Keep the record. Keep what you sent, the attachments, any receipt, and the reply. Note the next deadline.

Sample wording to adapt and send yourself — it may not fit your notice or the stage you are at. Replace the bracketed prompts with your own details; leave any case citation as it is.

Dear [Council] Parking Services, Re: PCN [PCN_NUMBER] — Moving Traffic Contravention — [DATE] I challenge this PCN on the following grounds: 1) Designation: [Council] was/was not designated as an approved local authority for moving traffic enforcement under the Bus Lane Contraventions (Approved Local Authorities) Designation Order 2024 with effect from [DATE]. If the contravention precedes designation, the PCN is ultra vires. 2) Signage: Signs and road markings must comply with TSRGD 2016. On inspection [DATE], [list non-compliances]. 3) Charging: Any charge must comply with the Civil Enforcement Regulations 2022. [List any breach.] If declined, I will appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. Yours faithfully, [Driver Name]

Beat It writes this argument automatically

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Council not yet authorised to issue this PCN

Legal basis

How to identify this in your case

Sample appeal wording

Beat It writes this argument automatically

Sources

Related appeal grounds

Next steps