25,000 parking fines overturned

The figures were released in response to an Assembly question

More than 25,000 parking tickets have been successfully challenged since NCP (now known as NSL) took over parking enforcement in NI, it has emerged.

The figure equates to 7.8% of the 327,267 tickets given out between November 2006 and December 2008.

Almost 39,000 of these tickets were challenged and the challenge was accepted in 25,484 cases.

The most common reasons for successful challenges were the production of a valid parking ticket or a Blue-Badge.

The figures were released by Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy in response to an Assembly question tabled by DUP MLA Simon Hamilton.

The Strangford representative said people should be aware of their right to appeal a parking ticket.

"Through constituency experience and working with people in the local area, I encouraged many of them who I felt had been unfairly treated to challenge, and was noticing a fair few were actually having their appeals upheld," he said.

"I find it interesting that just quite so many people who are challenging are actually finding that the ticket is overturned."

Tim Cowen of NSL said the vast vast majority of successful appeals concerned mitigating circumstances that attendants couldn't have known about.

He added that Roads Service, who run the appeals process, show "a great deal of discretion."