Parking - pay or challenge your penalty notice

If you pay the Penalty Charge Notice within 14 days you will only be liable to pay 50% of the total charge.

Pay your penalty notice online

If you would rather pay over the phone you can use our phone payment line 0300 600 0010. We accept the following credit / debit cards: Visa (including Electron), MasterCard, Delta, Maestro and Solo. We do not accept American Express.

Payment in full closes the case.

We can accept payments for penalty charge notices issued under the former ParkWise parking enforcement scheme.

Pay a bus lane penalty charge notice

We enforce on street parking restrictions across Lancashire and off street car parks on behalf of Lancaster City Council.

The purpose is to improve road safety for all road users, to improve the flow of traffic and to ensure emergency vehicles and public transport are able to travel without obstruction or delay. The money received from Penalty Charge Notices can only be re-invested into Lancashire parking services and highway related schemes.

The parking restrictions we enforce, include:

  • Vehicles parked on yellow lines or where loading restrictions are in force
  • Vehicles parked without clearly displaying a valid or the correct permit / voucher / ticket to allow them to do so
  • Vehicles parked for longer than the purchased time or for longer than permitted in pay and display or limited waiting bays
  • Vehicles parked in a suspended bay during controlled hours
  • Vehicles parked in a bus stop or bus lane during prohibited hours
  • Vehicles parked excessively outside of bay markings

If you are unsure where your penalty charge notice has been issued, please contact our general enquiries line 0300 123 6713, we cannot accept payments on this line. Please wait a full working day after being issued with a penalty charge notice before contacting us. This will allow us to have all the details ready on the system to answer your queries.

Parking enforcement on public/bank holidays

During bank holidays parking restrictions still apply unless stated on the signage:

This is because:

  • the county has a limited number of on street parking spaces on its roads
  • during public holidays there is an increased demand for spaces on the road 
  • we wish to encourage a fast turnover of spaces on busy days
  • it is important that we keep resident bays free for permit holders at these busy times

Challenge a penalty notice

Stage one - Initial informal challenge

You can submit your written challenge online. If you wish to include documentation, you can use a printable form and submit it by post, attaching the documentation, to:

Lancashire Parking Services,
PO Box 1023,
Preston,
Lancashire.
PR1 3ZA

We don't accept challenges in person or over the phone due to audit procedures.

We aim to respond to all correspondence within 20 days.

In order to protect your 14 day 50% discount period, your written initial challenge needs to be received by us within the first 14 days after the Penalty Charge Notice has been issued. If we receive your correspondence later than the first 14 days, you will be liable to pay the full charge amount should your Penalty Charge Notice be upheld.

State your case clearly and simply.  If you have evidence to support your claims such as receipts or witness statements, send these in. We recommend that you always send copies only and hold on to the originals.

When we have received your correspondence and investigated your case, we will write back to you, either accepting or rejecting your challenge.

If you have written within 14 days of receiving the Penalty Charge Notice and Lancashire Parking Services reject your challenge, you should be offered the chance to pay the 14 day discounted amount.

Stage two - Formal Representations to Lancashire Parking Services 

If your informal challenge is rejected and you do not pay the charge, a Notice to Owner will be sent to the person or company that is the legally registered owner of the vehicle. At this stage, the full penalty charge notice will be payable and no 50% discount will be offered.
This notice goes to the person believed to be the owner of the vehicle as under the Traffic Management Act 2004, it is the owner of the vehicle who is liable for any penalty charge notice(s) issued to it; irrespective of who the driver was.

If you receive a Notice to Owner form, you can use the form to make formal representations. The Notice to Owner form details the legal grounds on which a formal representation may be made. You must make your representations within 28 days of receiving the form. Again, state your case clearly and simply. If you have evidence to support your case, such as receipts or witness statements; send copies in with your completed form (always send copies only and hold on to the originals).

If you do not think you meet one of the legal grounds for making a representation, you may still state your case as we are still able to exercise discretion and cancel the Penalty Charge Notice at this stage.

Should your Penalty Charge Notice be cancelled at this stage, you will receive a letter informing you of this. If it is upheld you will be sent a letter explaining why. This is called a Notice of Rejection of Representations. With this letter, you should receive a form called a Notice of Appeal, allowing you to appeal to the Independent Parking Adjudicator.

Stage three - Appealing to the Independent Parking Adjudicator

You may only appeal to the Independent Parking Adjudicator if you have first used the Notice to Owner form to make representations to the council that issued the penalty notice and have received their Notice of Rejection of Representations. Your ‘Notice of Rejection of Representations’ will explain how to appeal to the Independent Parking Adjudicator.

The decision made by the independent adjudicator is final and is binding on both the council and the appellant.

If the Independent Parking Adjudicator rejects your appeal, you must pay the penalty charge. Failure to pay the charge will result in debt registration and the pursuit of the charge through the county court and through bailiff action.