Home / Advice / Scotland pavement, dropped-kerb or double-parking ticket — the penalty charge demanded is more than the regulations allow (regulation 10(4)(b))

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Scotland pavement, dropped-kerb or double-parking ticket — the penalty charge demanded is more than the regulations allow (regulation 10(4)(b))

For these Scottish tickets the regulations fix the penalty charge, the reduction for paying within 14 days, and the increase when a charge certificate is served. The ground is that the amount demanded is MORE than the regulations allow in your situation, not merely that two documents differ: a charge certificate lawfully adds the increase the regulations provide for. The letter quotes your documents and the regulation, asks the council to say under which paragraph the amount was arrived at, and asks for the notice to be cancelled and any sum refunded if the amount exceeds what is payable. It never proposes a figure of its own.

Legal basis

Parking Prohibitions (Enforcement and Accounts) (Scotland) Regulations 2023 (S.S.I. 2023/373) regulation 2: "(1) The penalty charge payable in respect of a contravention is £100. (2) If a penalty charge is paid before the end of a period of 14 days beginning with the date on which notice of a penalty charge is given under regulation 4 or served under regulation 5, the penalty charge is reduced by 50 percent. (3) Where a charge certificate is served under regulation 9(2), the penalty charge is increased by 50 percent." Regulation 10(4)(b): the ground "that the penalty charge exceeds the amount payable in the circumstances of the case". Read at legislation.gov.uk (latest available text) on 2026-09-09.

How to identify this in your case

Use this only where the penalty charge demanded is more than regulation 2 provides for your situation: more than the penalty charge in regulation 2(1), or, where a charge certificate has been served, more than the increased charge regulation 2(3) provides. Do not use this merely because a charge certificate added the increase, or because two documents differ: the regulations allow the increase. If you paid the reduced charge within 14 days and were still pursued, that is not this ground but regulation 10(4)(g): use the 'already paid' argument instead. Quote your documents word for word; do not work out a figure yourself.

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)(b) that the penalty charge exceeds the amount payable in the circumstances of the case. The enforcement notice dated [DATE] states: "[AMOUNT AND WORDING AS PRINTED ON THE NOTICE]". The [demand / charge certificate] dated [DATE] states: "[AMOUNT AND WORDING AS PRINTED]". Regulation 2 provides that the penalty charge payable in respect of a contravention is £100, that it is reduced by 50 percent if paid before the end of the period of 14 days beginning with the date on which notice of it is given or served, and that it is increased by 50 percent where a charge certificate is served under regulation 9(2). The authority is asked to state how the amount demanded was arrived at and under which of those paragraphs. If the penalty charge demanded exceeds the amount payable under regulation 2 in the circumstances of this case, I ask that the enforcement notice be cancelled and any sum paid refunded, as regulation 11(2) provides where a ground is accepted. I enclose the evidence relevant to this ground, as regulation 10(2) requires: [EVIDENCE].

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Sources

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