Penalty charge notices: the worst streets for driving PCNs

Where are you most likely to be issued with a PCN for a driving infringement? We’ve got the data.

There are few worse feelings for drivers than coming back to your car, only to see that you have been issued with a penalty charge notice (PCN).

These charges can be levied for a host of different reasons, from parking infringements to moving traffic offences, like stopping in a yellow box junction.

And given the money worries many of us face, it’s yet another unwelcome expense.

However, not all areas see the same level of PCN activity as others. While some are penalty charge hotspots, other towns may see them far less frequently.

The worst streets for PCN

Now a new study from price comparison site Confused.com has revealed the individual streets across the country where parking charge notices are most commonly issued.

Let’s take a look at those streets, just how many notices were dished out last year ‒ and how much they were worth.
 

What immediately stands out is just how wide a variance there is, even within this top 10. Browning Road in Newham not only takes top spot, it also saw around seven times more tickets issued than 10th-placed Putney High Street.

Indeed, more than 30,000 tickets were issued for each of the streets in the top four spots, but the numbers quickly drop rather significantly after that point.

It’s also notable that the number of tickets does not always tally directly with the amount of money raised from those PCNs.

There were more tickets issued for Charlton Road in Harrow than for Tangent Link in Havering, yet the latter raised almost £200,000 more cash out of drivers.

Looking outside London

Another point worth making is that each and every one of those 10 streets is located within the capital.

That’s pretty staggering, and tells you something about how stringent councils within London are when it comes to tackling driving infringements.

But what about the rest of the country? Below we have a breakdown of the streets outside of London where the most PCNs were issued.
 

Again, the contrast with the levels for London’s streets are eyebrow-raising, with even the Stockport Road garnering more than 3,000 fewer tickets than the tenth-placed London road.

And once more, the disparity between the number of tickets and the amounts raised are out of kilter.

Clearly, Copy Nook is an expensive street to be caught on, given the amounts raised compared to the number of tickets.

Fighting back against unfair PCNs

There are all sorts of reasons that drivers might be issued with a PCN.

However, it’s absolutely true that there will be occasions when the charge is issued unfairly.

Thankfully it is possible to battle back against unfair PCNS, and the COnfused study suggests that plenty of drivers do just that ‒ it found that more than half of those issued a PCN have appealed.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy though. A paltry 6% said they had found their council’s appeals process easy.

Here at loveMONEY, we’ve broken down the process for challenging ‒ and beating ‒ unfair parking charges.