Home / Advice / Scotland pavement, dropped-kerb or double-parking ticket — compelling reasons to cancel (regulation 10(4)(j))

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Scotland pavement, dropped-kerb or double-parking ticket — compelling reasons to cancel (regulation 10(4)(j))

For these Scottish tickets it is a ground of challenge in its own right that, whatever the other grounds, there are compelling reasons in the particular circumstances of the case why the council should cancel the penalty charge and refund any sum paid. This is the mitigation ground: the facts of your situation, told plainly and with evidence. The council judges whether the reasons are compelling; if it accepts them it must cancel and refund, and a rejection can be appealed to the tribunal on the same ground.

Legal basis

Parking Prohibitions (Enforcement and Accounts) (Scotland) Regulations 2023 (S.S.I. 2023/373) regulation 10(4)(j): the ground "that, whether or not any of the grounds specified in paragraph (4)(a) to (i) apply, there are compelling reasons why, in the particular circumstances of the case, the local authority should cancel the penalty charge and refund any sum paid to it on account of the penalty charge". Regulation 10(2). Regulation 11(2): where a local authority accepts that at least one of the grounds specified in regulation 10(4) is established, it "must— (a) cancel the enforcement notice" and "(c) refund any penalty charge paid in relation to the cancelled enforcement notice". Regulation 11(4)(b)-(c): a notice of rejection must state "that an appeal against the decision to serve an enforcement notice may be made to the First-tier Tribunal" and "the grounds upon which an appeal may be made (being the same grounds as are specified in regulation 10(4))". Read at legislation.gov.uk (latest available text) on 2026-09-09.

How to identify this in your case

Use this for circumstances that do not fit any other ground but that a reasonable council should weigh: a medical emergency, a bereavement, a sudden illness, a breakdown with evidence, or a first contravention in circumstances you could not have foreseen. Say what happened in your own words and attach whatever shows it. The council judges whether your reasons are compelling; if it accepts that they are, regulation 11(2) says it must cancel the notice and refund any sum paid, and if it rejects them you can appeal to the tribunal on the same ground (regulation 11(4)(b)-(c)).

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.

I make representations under regulation 10(1) of the Parking Prohibitions (Enforcement and Accounts) (Scotland) Regulations 2023 on the ground in regulation 10(4)(j) that, whether or not any of the grounds in regulation 10(4)(a) to (i) apply, there are compelling reasons why, in the particular circumstances of this case, the local authority should cancel the penalty charge and refund any sum paid on account of it. [THE CIRCUMSTANCES, IN THE CUSTOMER'S OWN WORDS.] I enclose the evidence relevant to this ground, as regulation 10(2) requires: [EVIDENCE]. I ask the authority to cancel the penalty charge under that ground and, if any sum has been paid, to refund it.

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Sources

Parking Prohibitions (Enforcement and Accounts) (Scotland) Regulations 2023 (S.S.I. 2023/373), regulations 10(2), 10(4)(j), 11(2) and 11(4)(b)-(c)