You got a ticket. Now what?
Council penalty, private parking charge, or police fixed penalty — three different documents with different rules, different appeal routes and different consequences for ignoring them. Identify yours first; everything follows from that.
Everything depends on which of three documents you are holding, and they look deliberately similar. One is a council penalty with a statutory appeal route. One is a private company's invoice dressed as a penalty. One is a criminal fixed penalty. The internet's favourite advice — "just ignore it" — is years out of date for one of them and actively dangerous for another.
Step one: identify the document
| Council PCN | Private parking charge | Police/DVSA FPN | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Issued by | The council or TfL | A parking company (ANPR or windscreen) | Police, or DVSA |
| Usually says | Penalty Charge Notice, cites the Traffic Management Act 2004 or a TRO | "Parking Charge Notice" — the similarity is not an accident | Fixed Penalty Notice |
| Legal basis | Statutory penalty | Contract — the signs are the offer, parking is the acceptance | Criminal law |
| Typical camper trigger | Overnight ban in a council car park, restricted bay, clearway | Overstay or "no overnight" in a supermarket, retail or managed pub car park | Obstruction, clearway offences, insecure load |
| Ignoring it | Escalates to a charge certificate, then enforcement — do not ignore | No longer safe to ignore either — see below | Never ignore — it can become a court summons |
If the paper says "Penalty Charge Notice" and names a council: statutory. If it names a limited company you have never heard of: private. If a police officer handed it over: FPN.
Challenging a council PCN
The statutory route, with real deadlines:
- The discount window. Pay within 14 days (21 for postal ANPR ones) and it is typically halved. This matters because appealing usually pauses that clock — check the notice's own wording
- Informal challenge (if the ticket was on the windscreen): write to the council with your evidence before the formal notice arrives
- Formal representations against the Notice to Owner — the council must respond
- Independent adjudication — the Traffic Penalty Tribunal (or London Tribunals) — free, independent, decided on evidence
The camper-relevant grounds that actually win: the restriction was not properly signed; the TRO does not say what the sign claims (ask the council for the order — you are entitled to it); or the alleged contravention did not happen. Photograph the signage and the bay before you drive away. The order-versus-sign mismatch is a genuinely common winner, because signs get replaced and orders do not.
Challenging a private parking charge
Different world: this is a contract claim, and since the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (Schedule 4) the operator can pursue the registered keeper, not just the driver, if their paperwork meets the Act's conditions. That is what killed "just ignore it" — operators now issue county court claims at scale, and an unanswered claim becomes a default judgment (a CCJ) whether or not the charge was fair.
The route:
- Appeal to the operator first, promptly — say what happened, attach evidence, and if you had permission (a pub stopover, a paying customer), say so and name who gave it
- If rejected, you get an independent appeal: POPLA (BPA members) or the IAS (IPC members) — the rejection letter must tell you which, and you have 28 days from the rejection to use it. Free, written, evidence-based
- If that fails, the operator's remaining move is court, where a district judge decides the contract question — signage, sums and all
The camper-relevant winners here: you had the landowner's permission and can show it (this is the ANPR-in-a-pub-car-park trap — get your plate registered and keep the confirmation); the signage was inadequate to form a contract at night in an unlit car park (photograph it in the dark you parked in); the operator's notice missed POFA's deadlines and windows, which breaks keeper liability; or the charge simply misstates what the signs said.
Do not pay the "discount" as a reflex. The reduced-if-paid-quickly offer is designed to make challenge feel risky. If you had permission or the signs were poor, appeal — the independent stage costs nothing.
The one to treat with respect
A Fixed Penalty Notice from police or DVSA is criminal-law territory: pay it or contest it in court within its stated window, never file-and-forget. For most campers this only arises from genuine obstruction — which is also the one that tows the van.
Keep the ticket honest, and yourself too
The angle running through all three: evidence beats indignation. The date-stamped photograph of the sign, the order text, the written permission — those win reviews and appeals. "Everyone parks there" and "the app said it was fine" do not. Which is, not coincidentally, why this site puts a source and a date on every claim.
In one line
Council PCN: use the statutory appeal and the free tribunal. Private charge: appeal, then POPLA/IAS within 28 days, and never simply ignore it post-POFA. Police FPN: deal with it, promptly, always.
Sources: Traffic Management Act 2004 (civil enforcement of parking); Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4 (keeper liability on private land); POPLA published appeal process (28-day window from operator rejection).
Last reviewed 22 August 2026. Deadlines and discounts vary by notice — the dates printed on yours override anything here. General guidance, not legal advice.