How to appeal a Waltham Forest parking ticket (PCN)

Where Waltham Forest PCNs go wrong

• Low-traffic-neighbourhood and modal-filter cameras, where the signing of a filter has been challenged at specific locations and residents were caught before exemptions were processed.
• School-street cameras where a resident's or carer's exemption was not registered in time.
• Bus lanes, bus gates and moving-traffic cameras (yellow boxes and banned turns) where the signing was inadequate, the hours were easy to misread, or you were forced across the line by traffic ahead.
• Permit, visitor and dispensation errors. A valid resident or business permit not displayed or not read, a visitor voucher mis-set, or a dispensation or suspension the officer did not have on record.
• Pay-by-phone and pay-and-display errors. Paying for the wrong zone code, mistyping the registration, a part-paid session, or an out-of-order machine or card reader. Keep the confirmation or a photo of the machine fault.
• Signs and road markings that do not comply. Faded lines, missing or contradictory signs, a zone entry plate that is obscured, or restriction hours that differ between the sign and the bay. The Traffic Regulation Order must be properly made and signed.

How to appeal a Waltham Forest PCN

1. PCN served — on the windscreen or by hand for parking, or by post for camera-enforced contraventions. You have 28 days to pay or challenge, with a 50% discount for the first 14 days (21 days for most postal camera PCNs).
2. Informal challenge (windscreen and hand-served PCNs only). Challenge online through Waltham Forest's online PCN service, quoting the PCN number and registration, before the 14 days run out. If Waltham Forest rejects an in-time informal challenge, the discount is normally re-offered for 14 days.
3. Notice to Owner after 28 days, then 28 days to make formal representations on the statutory grounds. A posted camera PCN is itself the formal stage, so you make representations straight away.
4. Appeal to London Tribunals within 28 days of a Notice of Rejection. It is free and independent, and can be dealt with online, by telephone or in person.
5. If ignored: a Charge Certificate (+50%), registration at the Traffic Enforcement Centre, then enforcement agents. A TE9 witness statement can reset the process if the statutory notices never reached you.

Your PCN number and registration let you view the civil enforcement officer's photographs or the camera footage on Waltham Forest's online PCN service. Always look at the evidence before deciding how to respond.

Waltham Forest takes challenges through an online form and confirms with a submission reference; formal representations can also be emailed to the address printed on the Notice to Owner, so keep a copy of whatever you send.