Home / Advice / Scotland pavement, dropped-kerb or double-parking ticket — nobody stopped the officer fixing or handing over the notice (regulation 5(1)(a))

proceduralUK · ScotlandDifficulty: medium

Scotland pavement, dropped-kerb or double-parking ticket — nobody stopped the officer fixing or handing over the notice (regulation 5(1)(a))

Where a Scottish council serves an enforcement notice under regulation 5(1)(a), that is, on the basis that someone prevented its officer from giving the penalty charge notice at the vehicle, it is a ground of challenge that no one prevented the officer from fixing the notice to the vehicle or handing it over. The letter says what happened and asks the council for the officer's record of being prevented.

Legal basis

Parking Prohibitions (Enforcement and Accounts) (Scotland) Regulations 2023 (S.S.I. 2023/373) regulation 5(1)(a): this regulation applies where "an authorised enforcement officer attempted to give a penalty charge notice in accordance with regulation 4 but was prevented from doing so by any person". Regulation 10(4)(h): the ground "that, in the case of an enforcement notice which is served under regulation 5(1)(a), no person prevented an authorised enforcement officer from— (i) fixing a penalty charge notice to the relevant vehicle, or (ii) handing such a notice to the person appearing to the officer to be in charge of the relevant vehicle". Read at legislation.gov.uk (latest available text) on 2026-09-09.

How to identify this in your case

Use this only if the enforcement notice says, or the council says, that it was served under regulation 5(1)(a), that is, because someone prevented the officer from giving the penalty charge notice at the vehicle, and that is not what happened. Describe what did happen. If you were not there, say so.

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)(h) that no person prevented an authorised enforcement officer from fixing a penalty charge notice to the relevant vehicle or handing such a notice to the person appearing to the officer to be in charge of it. [FACTS: what happened at the vehicle, or that no one was present.] The authority is asked to produce the officer's record of the attempt to give the notice and of being prevented from doing so. If the authority holds no such evidence, I ask that the enforcement notice be cancelled under regulation 11(2).

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Sources

Parking Prohibitions (Enforcement and Accounts) (Scotland) Regulations 2023 (S.S.I. 2023/373), regulations 5(1)(a) and 10(4)(h)