Home / Advice / Scotland pavement or double-parking ticket — parked wholly within an authorised or designated parking place (section 55(7))

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Scotland pavement or double-parking ticket — parked wholly within an authorised or designated parking place (section 55(7))

The pavement and double parking bans do not apply to a vehicle parked wholly inside a parking place that a council order has authorised or designated (usually, but not necessarily, a marked bay), for example a bay laid out partly on the pavement. Markings do not settle it either way: the letter asks the council for the order.

Legal basis

Section 55(1): "This section sets out exceptions to the pavement parking prohibition and the double parking prohibition." Section 55(7): "The pavement parking prohibition and the double parking prohibition do not apply where the motor vehicle is parked wholly within a parking place that is— (a) authorised by order under section 32(1)(b) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, or (b) designated by order under section 45 of that Act." Parking Prohibitions (Enforcement and Accounts) (Scotland) Regulations 2023 (S.S.I. 2023/373) regulation 10(4)(a). Read at legislation.gov.uk (latest available text) on 2026-09-09.

How to identify this in your case

Answer both: (1) Was the whole vehicle inside a parking place laid out by the council, for example a bay marked partly on the pavement? If any part of the vehicle was outside it, do not use this. (2) Do you know whether the council made an order for that parking place (a sign naming the order, a pay-and-display or residents' bay)? Say what you know; if you do not know, the letter asks the council to say whether the place is authorised or designated by order, which only the council can confirm. Photograph the place and the vehicle inside it.

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)(a) that the alleged contravention did not occur. The vehicle was parked wholly within the parking place at [LOCATION]; photographs are attached [WHAT THE CUSTOMER KNOWS OF THE ORDER, IF ANYTHING]. Under section 55(7) of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 the pavement parking prohibition and the double parking prohibition do not apply where the motor vehicle is parked wholly within a parking place that is authorised by order under section 32(1)(b) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 or designated by order under section 45 of that Act. The authority is asked to state whether that parking place is so authorised or designated and, if so, to identify the order. If it is, the prohibition did not apply to the vehicle and I ask that the enforcement notice be cancelled under regulation 11(2).

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Sources

Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, sections 55(1) and 55(7)
Parking Prohibitions (Enforcement and Accounts) (Scotland) Regulations 2023 (S.S.I. 2023/373), regulation 10(4)(a)