Places and nations
Parking fines in Wales
Independent site, not a council, operator or appeals service. You pay or appeal only through the channel printed on your notice.
Enter the date on your Welsh council notice and its rate: the countdown gives the reduced-rate deadline, the Notice to Owner and the charge certificate.
Next: Last day for the reduced rate
8 November 2026
13 days left · £35
| Last day for the reduced rate14 days beginning with the day the notice was served. Pay £35 instead of £70. | 8 November 2026£35 |
| Informal challenge, to keep the reduced rateWrite to the council before this date: if it rejects the challenge it may offer the reduced rate again. | 8 November 2026 |
| Notice to Owner can be posted (earliest)Sent to the registered keeper if nothing is paid in 28 days. From then on the full £70 is due. | 23 November 2026£70 |
| Formal representations (earliest)28 days beginning with the day the Notice to Owner is served. The date counts from your Notice to Owner: this is the earliest it can fall. | 20 December 2026 |
| Charge certificate (earliest)If nothing is paid or challenged, the charge rises by 50% to £105. | 21 December 2026£105 |
Councils in Wales enforce parking under Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004, like councils in England, but the penalty levels are set by a Welsh order made in 2008. A higher-rate contravention, such as parking on a yellow line during restricted hours or in a disabled bay without a badge, costs £70; a lower-rate one, such as overstaying a paid bay, costs £50. Paying within 14 days halves the penalty, to £35 or £25, and a charge certificate after the Notice to Owner stage raises it by 50%, to £105 or £75. Appeals that a council rejects go to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, which also hears appeals from councils in England outside London. For private car parks, Wales is covered by Schedule 4 to the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 in the same way as England, and the government Code laid on 20 October 2026 will apply once in force.
Welsh PCN at each stage
Penalty
£70
| Within 14 days | £35 |
| After a charge certificate | £105 |
Rules, amounts and dates read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
Welsh penalty levels
| Rate | Penalty | Within 14 days | After a charge certificate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Higher | £70 | £35 | £105 |
| Lower | £50 | £25 | £75 |
Every Welsh council uses the same two levels. The contravention code on your notice decides whether the higher or the lower one applies. If the amount printed does not match, that is a ground of challenge in itself. The mini-tool above shows each stage for either rate.
A worked example
A penalty at the higher rate is fixed to a car in Cardiff on 21 December 2026. The reduced rate of £35 is available for 14 days, until 3 January 2027, a period that includes Christmas Day, Boxing Day and the substitute bank holiday on 28 December 2026: all of them count. If nothing is paid, a Notice to Owner can follow after 28 days, from 18 January 2027, asking for £70 or representations. If those are not made, the charge certificate brings the debt to £105. The countdown at the top counts from the date printed on the notice; Welsh councils' notices state the dates they apply, and those prevail.
Challenging a Welsh PCN
The steps follow GOV.UK's description for council penalties (GOV.UK: parking tickets): an informal challenge for a windscreen notice, ideally during the reduced-rate period; formal representations after the Notice to Owner; and, if the council rejects them, an appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal within the time stated on the notice of rejection. The tribunal is independent of councils. Our tribunal page covers how to prepare an appeal, and the PCN guide explains each stage.
The legal basis is the same Act as in England, the Traffic Management Act 2004, but Wales has its own regulations for procedure and appeals made by the Welsh Ministers. Where this site quotes the English regulations of 2022 for a detail such as presumed service, check the Welsh notice for the rule your council applies.
Private car parks in Wales
Private parking in Wales works as in England. The keeper of a vehicle can be pursued under Schedule 4 if the notices are compliant and on time: within 14 days beginning the day after the parking ended for a camera notice with no windscreen ticket, or between day 29 and day 56 after a windscreen ticket. The government Code, which applies in England, Wales and Scotland (explanatory memorandum), will cap charges at £100 once in force. Our Notice to Keeper checker tests a date.
Paying or challenging: how to choose
The arithmetic is simple. At the higher rate, acting in the first 14 days costs £35; doing nothing until a charge certificate costs £105, three times as much. A challenge sent early, with photographs or a receipt, rarely costs more than paying at once, because councils commonly re-offer the reduced rate when they reject an early challenge. If you have no evidence that the contravention did not happen, paying promptly is usually the sensible course.
Practical points
- Notices may be bilingual; the Welsh and English texts carry the same deadlines.
- Photograph signs and lines at once, and keep receipts or permits.
- Pay or challenge only through the channels printed on the notice.