Wrong penalty band used — charge is too high
Outside London, a council's parking penalties come from a table of bands, and each band has two levels: a higher one for the contraventions the law calls "higher level contraventions", and a lower one for everything else. Which contraventions count as higher level is fixed by law in a closed list — a council cannot move a contravention into the higher level to suit itself. So if the code on your notice is not on that list but you have been charged the higher-level amount for your council's band, the charge is set at the wrong level. In London the levels are set by the London authorities jointly rather than by the same guidelines, so check the London schedule if your ticket is a London one.
Legal basis
Traffic Management Act 2004 Schedule 9 (setting the levels of penalty charges); Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Approved Devices, Charging Guidelines and General Provisions) (England) Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/71) regulation 26, under which the Secretary of State's guidelines for the level of charges outside Greater London "are set out in Schedule 3", and Schedule 3 Part 1 paragraph 1(1), which requires penalty charges to be set "for higher level contraventions, at the level specified in column (2) of one of the bands in Table 1" and, for all other contraventions, "at the level specified in column (3) of the band selected for higher level contraventions"; Schedule 3 Part 1 paragraph 2, which lists exhaustively which contraventions are "higher level contraventions"; regulation 24 for Greater London, where the levels are set by the London authorities jointly under Part 2 of Schedule 9 to the TMA 2004.
How to identify this in your case
Take the contravention code printed on your notice (a two-digit number such as 01, 02, 12, 16, 30 or 40) and find what it describes. Then check whether that description is in the closed list of "higher level contraventions" in Schedule 3 Part 1 paragraph 2 of S.I. 2022/71 — broadly waiting and loading restrictions, unauthorised parking in an on-street parking place, double parking, dropped footways and pedestrian crossings. If it is not on that list, the lower level for your council's band applies. Compare that with the amount actually charged. This applies outside Greater London; a London ticket is set under a different route.
Beat It is not using this argument right now
We do not put this argument in letters: whether it applies depends on the exact figures on your notice, and we would rather not argue a sum we have not checked. When your scan shows a printed contravention code and amount that are clearly the wrong level, Beat It raises that itself. Scan your ticket — the engine looks for every other ground that fits.
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Related appeal grounds
- Aberdeen Clean Air Zone ticket issued too early
- Appealing a Scottish tribunal's legal error to a higher tribunal
- Attorney acting for keeper under Scottish power of attorney
- Bailiff acted without proper advance warning notice
- Bath CAZ — Sunset Period for Pre-Registered Commercial Vehicles
- Bay Obstructed or Too Small — Could Not Park Within the Bay Markings