Majority win NI parking appeals

By Johnny Caldwell
BBC News website

Mitigating circumstances accepted included medical emergencies

Almost two-thirds of people who have formally challenged a parking ticket in Northern Ireland have been successful, the BBC News website can reveal.

Figures obtained from the DRD show that of 7,919 challenges, 5,044 (63.7%) have been accepted and 2,875 rejected.

A total of 102,773 parking tickets have been issued since the DRD took over the service, assisted by NCP, last October.

Just under 750 of the successful challenges were on the basis that a ticket had been issued incorrectly.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Regional Development said: "The top reasons are the subsequent production of a valid pay and display ticket (1,732) or a valid blue badge (1,675).

She added that a total of 895 appellants had been successful because of "valid evidence of loading and unloading taking place, mitigating circumstances such as medical emergencies and broken down vehicles".

"Only 742 of these challenges have been accepted on the basis of the penalty charge notice (parking ticket) being issued incorrectly."

Last month the BBC News website revealed that Northern Ireland's most prolific traffic warden had given out 1,000 more parking tickets than any other.