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Wales — council took more than 56 days to answer your formal representations

If you made formal representations to a Welsh council after receiving a Notice to Owner, and they reached the council in time, the council has 56 days to serve its decision on you. If it misses that deadline, the law treats your representations as ACCEPTED — the council must cancel the Notice to Owner, refund anything you have paid towards it, and write to tell you it has done so because it missed the deadline. The council may disregard representations it receives after the end of the 28 days that start on the day the Notice to Owner was served, so allow for the post. This is the Welsh equivalent of the English 56-day rule and rests on the Welsh 2013 regulations, not the English 2022 ones.

Legal basis

Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Representations and Appeals) (Wales) Regulations 2013 (WSI 2013/359), regulation 5(2)(b) (56-day duty to serve a decision), 5(5) (deemed acceptance on failure) and 5(6) (cancel, refund and serve a notice saying so). Regulation 5(4) preserves the authority's ability to serve a fresh notice to owner on another person, so the remedy is cancellation of the NOTICE TO OWNER. Regulation 5(1) allows the authority to disregard representations it receives after the end of the period of 28 days beginning with the date of service of the notice to owner.

How to identify this in your case

Check the date you sent your formal representations to the council in reply to a Notice to Owner, and the date the council received them. Check they reached it in time: the council may disregard representations it receives after the end of the 28 days that start on the day the Notice to Owner was served. Then count 56 days from the date the council received them. If they reached it in time and the council has not served a written decision on you — either cancelling the ticket or rejecting your challenge — within those 56 days, it has missed the deadline and the Notice to Owner must be cancelled. This applies to Welsh councils only.

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 made formal representations to the authority in response to the Notice to Owner served on me in respect of PCN [NUMBER]. My representations were served on the authority on [DATE]. Under regulation 5(2)(b) of the Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Representations and Appeals) (Wales) Regulations 2013 (WSI 2013/359), the authority was under a duty to serve notice of its decision within the period of 56 days beginning with that date. As at [DATE], 56 days have elapsed and no notice of decision has been served on me. By regulation 5(5) the authority is therefore deemed to have accepted the grounds relied upon in my representations. By regulation 5(6) the authority must now cancel the Notice to Owner, refund any sum paid in relation to it, and serve a notice on me informing me that the Notice to Owner has been cancelled because the authority failed to serve notice of its decision in accordance with regulation 5(2)(b). I ask the authority to do so and to confirm in writing.

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Scan your PCN — our AI checks if this ground applies to your specific ticket and drafts an appeal letter. You check it and tap send: we send it in your name where the council takes email, or through the council’s own website where we can; otherwise we guide you through their own online form so you press submit, or give you a letter to post. The win fee is only charged if you win.

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Sources

Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Representations and Appeals) (Wales) Regulations 2013 (WSI 2013/359) reg.5(2)(b), 5(5) and 5(6)
WSI 2013/359 reg.1(2) — these Regulations apply in relation to Wales