Code 02 PCN Appeal: Waiting and Loading Restrictions

1. What does Code 02 mean?

Code 02 concerns waiting or loading where both waiting and loading restrictions were in force. A single yellow line and a single kerb mark can operate at different times. Double yellow lines restrict waiting throughout the day, but the loading ban still needs to be identified. DfT guidance explains the kerb marks and associated signs, including arrangements in restricted parking zones.

Contravention

Code 02 concerns waiting or loading where both waiting and loading restrictions were in force

Category

On-Street Parking PCNs

Procedure covered

Civil parking PCNs in England, including London; vehicle PCN or postal PCN, formal representations and independent appeal.

Formal representation deadline

28 days beginning with service of the Notice to Owner or postal PCN.

Formal decision deadline

56 days beginning with receipt of qualifying formal representations, including service of the authority's decision.

Initial discount

50%: 14 days beginning with PCN service, or 21 days for an approved-device postal parking PCN. Any later offer has its own terms.

Tribunal appeal deadline

28 days beginning with service of the Notice of Rejection; the adjudicator can allow more time.

London borough parking penalties

Band A: £160 higher level or £110 lower level. Band B: £140 higher level or £90 lower level. The location, contravention and applicable date determine the charge.

TfL red-route penalties

TfL currently lists £160, reduced to £80 during the applicable discount period. These are separate from borough parking bands.

Parking penalties outside London

England's standard bands are £60 higher/£40 lower or £70 higher/£50 lower. Check the authority's applicable band and any authorised departure. These are not UK-wide rates; other jurisdictions have separate schemes.

2. Were Both Waiting and Loading Prohibited?

• Both the waiting restriction and the loading restriction must cover the vehicle's position and operate at the alleged time under the applicable order.
• The signing must convey the loading ban as well as the waiting restriction. Their operating hours need not be the same.
• Ordinary loading or unloading does not excuse a stop during an active loading ban, and a Blue Badge does not override that ban.
• Necessary passenger boarding or alighting, an unavoidable stop or another claimed exception must be assessed separately against the order and the actual activity.

3. Signs and restrictions for Code 02

Yellow lines convey waiting restrictions; yellow kerb marks convey loading restrictions. Read a part-time loading ban's days, hours and arrows separately from the waiting plate. Double kerb marks normally indicate an all-time loading ban.

Check any restricted parking zone entrance before relying on missing lines or kerb marks. Photograph the whole arrangement and the vehicle's position, not just one sign panel.

4. Grounds to challenge a Code 02 PCN

The statutory ground must match what happened. These code-specific points explain how to establish it.

• The loading restriction did not operate at the PCN time. Photograph the entire plate, including days, hours and arrows, and distinguish it from the waiting restriction above it.
• The vehicle was outside the length covered by the loading ban. Show its position relative to the kerb marks and the sign's directional arrows; a close-up of the plate alone may not establish where the restriction starts.
• The restriction was not adequately conveyed. Explain the actual missing, obscured or contradictory information. Check any restricted-zone entry signs before arguing that absent yellow lines or kerb marks alone invalidate the PCN.
• The stop was necessary to set down or collect a passenger, including evidenced assistance, or resulted from circumstances beyond the driver's control. Give the duration and activity and check the applicable order. Ordinary loading is not an answer to an active loading ban.

5. Statutory parking appeal grounds

• The alleged parking contravention did not happen, including where a relevant exemption applied or the restriction was not adequately signed.
• You were not the owner at the relevant time: you never owned the vehicle, sold it before the event or acquired it afterwards.
• The vehicle was under someone else's control without the owner's consent at the time of the alleged contravention.
• You are a vehicle-hire firm and the vehicle was hired under a qualifying agreement with a signed statement accepting PCN liability. Supply the hirer's name and address.
• The authority is demanding more than the penalty legally applicable to this case.
• The authority failed to comply with a statutory requirement in imposing or recovering the penalty: a procedural impropriety.
• The traffic order relied on is invalid, except an order subject to Part 6 of Schedule 9 to the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984.
• For a postal PCN relying on prevented service or a qualifying drive-away under regulation 10(2)(b) or (c), nobody prevented the officer from attaching or handing over the PCN. This is not the ground for an approved-device postal PCN.
• The enforcement notice should not have been served because the penalty was already paid in full, or at the valid discounted amount by the applicable deadline. Paying a parking tariff is different from paying the penalty.

6. Applicable exemptions

Necessary boarding or alighting is different from loading goods, and a no-waiting restriction is different from a no-stopping restriction. A Blue Badge does not permit parking during an active loading ban. Emergency work or an unavoidable breakdown needs its own facts and the relevant exception; a brief delivery does not become exempt simply because the driver stayed nearby.

7. Evidence for your Code 02 appeal

• Wide photographs locating the vehicle beside the relevant kerb marks and signs.
• The complete loading plate, including any arrow, time change or event-day condition.
• The council's photographs and observation notes showing the recorded activity and times.
• A passenger-assistance statement, breakdown record or other document explaining a claimed exception.

8. How to challenge your Code 02 PCN

These stages cover civil parking PCNs in England, including London, for on-street parking and council car parks. Private Parking Charge Notices, clamping or removal, and notices under other UK or specialist local schemes have separate procedures.

A PCN attached to the vehicle or handed to the driver can be challenged informally before a Notice to Owner is served. If a Notice to Owner arrives, its recipient must make formal representations against that notice even if an earlier challenge is still unanswered. Liability normally rests with the owner, not simply whoever was driving.

A postal parking PCN under the English 2022 scheme is itself the formal notice: make representations against it without a separate Notice to Owner. Formal representations against either notice must reach the authority within 28 calendar days beginning with the date of service. Count the service date as day one, not the date of the parking event. If submitting late, explain the delay; the authority may disregard late representations.

The initial 50% discount runs for 14 days beginning with service for a vehicle PCN or a postal PCN based on prevented service or a qualifying drive-away. An approved-device postal parking PCN has 21 days beginning with service. The discount deadline is separate from the formal representation deadline.

An early challenge may lead to a renewed discount if rejected, depending on the authority's policy and written reply. DfT recommends considering a further 14-day offer after rejecting a challenge received during the discount period; this is not an automatic entitlement. Check any new amount and expiry date in the reply.

State why the loading ban did not apply, was not adequately signed, or was subject to the specific exception relied on. Identify the exact time and position. If the ban applied and you were making a delivery, explain any exceptional circumstances honestly as a request for discretion.

1. Identify the current notice and use its challenge or formal-representation instructions. Submit through the issuing authority's stated service or postal address.
2. Give the PCN reference, vehicle registration, location and date. Select the relevant ground and explain the facts supporting it; identify any request for discretionary cancellation separately.
3. Attach clear copies of relevant photographs, payment or permit records, delivery evidence and correspondence. Link each document to the point it supports and retain the originals.
4. For ownership, hire or use without consent, include the relevant records. Provide known buyer or seller details for an ownership change, or hirer details and the qualifying hire documents where applicable.
5. Keep the submitted text, every attachment and the dated acknowledgement. For post, retain proof of posting and any delivery evidence; the formal deadline concerns the authority's receipt.

9. When the authority must respond

For formal representations under England's 2022 parking rules, the authority must consider your representations and supporting evidence and serve its decision within 56 days beginning with the date it receives them. This covers representations made in the required form and manner that are in time, or late representations the authority has not disregarded. Receipt is day one; the deadline concerns service of the decision, not simply writing or posting it.

If the authority fails to comply within that period, the representations are deemed accepted. It must cancel the relevant Notice to Owner or postal PCN, refund any sum paid in relation to it and send confirmation of cancellation. Keep the submission acknowledgement, notice and delivery records to establish the dates.

The statutory 56-day rule does not apply to an informal challenge against a vehicle PCN or to a request for photographs. An unanswered informal challenge does not remove the requirement to respond formally if a Notice to Owner is served.

10. If your parking challenge is rejected

An informal rejection is not a tribunal decision. You can pay on the terms offered, or make formal representations if a Notice to Owner is served. Address the reasons given and include the evidence again at the formal stage.

A formal Notice of Rejection gives 28 days beginning with its service to pay or appeal to the independent adjudicator. It must explain the appeal route. If your appeal is late, include the reasons for the delay; the adjudicator decides whether to allow more time.

A later Charge Certificate can increase the penalty by 50%, followed by debt registration and an Order for Recovery if unpaid. Those documents have distinct procedural remedies, not a fresh ordinary appeal against the parking event.

11. Appeal to the independent tribunal

Use the tribunal identified in the Notice of Rejection. London civil parking appeals go to London Tribunals; relevant appeals elsewhere in England and Wales go to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. Welsh notices follow their own regulations. There is no fee to lodge a parking tribunal appeal.

The statutory grounds above are the basis for the adjudicator's decision. You can also explain compelling circumstances, but mitigation alone is not a statutory ground: the adjudicator may recommend that the authority reconsider cancellation rather than allow the appeal on that basis.

If the appeal is allowed, the penalty is cancelled. If refused, the full penalty is normally payable under the decision's instructions; an earlier discount does not automatically continue through the tribunal stage.

1. Register the appeal using the rejection's reference or verification details and select the ground that applies. Save the registration confirmation.
2. Provide the PCN, formal representations, rejection and relevant supporting evidence. Explain which findings or reasons you dispute.
3. Read the authority's evidence and respond to any factual errors or missing points. Add further documents within the tribunal's stated evidence timetable.
4. Choose from the available hearing or written-decision options and follow the tribunal's directions. Keep the final decision with your case records.

Waiting and loading bans (family aggregate)

160 of 557 recorded cases were allowed (28.7%).