A decade of moving traffic PCNs in London

 

Welcome to the goldmine which is PCNs for moving traffic contraventions. These are all enforced by cctv camera linked most of the time to a computer which identifies alleged contraventions (although council staff or contractors probably assume the selected clips are correct, when that isn't always the case).

The right to issue PCNs for moving traffic contraventions (banned turns, yellow box junctions and the many often part time 'no motor vehicles' streets known also as Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and School Streets have proliferated since Covid in 2020) started in 2003.

Back in 2015 many of these cameras would have been watched over by real people sat watching video screens who manually recorded what appeared to be contraventions. TfL still do it that way. However advances in technology now enable locations to be watched 24/7 by cameras linked to computers that look at the movement of vehicles and can tell when they go where they shouldn't, read the numberplate, send to DVLA for details of the registered keeper and then send out a PCN, all with no direct human intervention. They don't miss the slightest error.

That is the second factor which explains the fourfold increase in moving traffic PCNs over the decade. If we assumed a 50% recovery of what were £130 PCNs the income to councils in London would be £254,000,000 (they are now £160). 

The third factor is councils who decided to start using their powers which is definitely Kensington & Chelsea, Greenwich, Sutton, Barnet & Bromley and others like Bexley which had just started.

Only four councils failed to at least double their PCN count in the decade, being Brent, Waltham Forest, Kingston & Harrow. 

You need to chuck your satnav away and look out of the windscreen like a hawk. Join the Institute of Advanced Motoring or ROSPA and improve your observation skills.

The end. 

A decade of parking PCN in London

Car ownership in London has been fairly stable for years, with a slight downward trend since 2016.

 

PCN numbers for parking would therefore follow the same trend, one would think?

As you can see, that isn't the case with parking PCN numbers going up by 54% over a decade. That however masks a huge variance. In Wandsworth the overall number of PCNs issued went down, the only borough where it did. There was industrial action by traffic wardens (CEOs) in 2022 and 2024 which it seems had quite the effect.

Go to the other end of the scale, Greenwich, where the number of parking PCNs trebled over a decade. That cannot be because people in Greenwich decided to become terrible at parking but because, possibly or probably, more controlled parking zones were introduced and more civil enforcement officers were deployed. One of Mr Mustard's readers in Greenwich may know. Greenwich Council may have become PCN crack addicts is also an option.

There were two big jumps in Greenwich, using 31 March as the year end.

From 2018 to 2019 from 38.342 to 68,195 and 

from 2024 to 2025 from 70,898 to 102,854

The end. Bus lane and moving traffic stats to follow. 

More PCN statistics

 

Above you will see a breakdown of PCN numbers in London at the start and end of a 10 year period. Mr Mustard will highlight some of the trends in future blogs but if you want to do your own analysis you can find the spreadsheet here.

PCNs in London double in a decade !

Here are the stats taken from Annual reports issued by London Councils, the mouthpiece for councils in London and the body which has various statutory functions.

Bare numbers are hard to follow so here are some charts to make it digestible.

First, a chart of the overall numbers, please keep your eye on the scales on the left as they are all different:

The dotted line is Excel's idea of the trend. Anyone can see they are on a steady upward trajectory apart from the year to March 2021 which is when covid hit.

Next, parking PCNs

Again down in covid when lots of us stayed home

London is getting more built up and that means more people and more cars which will explain some of the increase. The main driver is, in Mr Mustard's opinion, simply the number of traffic wardens on the street or, for TfL, if they added extra cameras on Red Routes, which they have.

Next is bus lanes of which there have been a few new ones over the period:

Finally the main reason for the increase, moving traffic PCNs for stopping in box junctions, not turning in the direction shown by blue arrows, doing U-turns where banned and 'school streets' and 'Low traffic neighbourhoods' which clearly aren't low traffic, they don't stop the unwanted traffic, they just punish it, deliberate and innocent error alike. Mr Mustard suspects that the number of these will drop as Londoners get to know where they all are and change their routes and/or travel times to avoid PCNs.

PCNs are meant to be a deterrent.

Clearly they aren't otherwise there wouldn't be nearly 10 million PCNs a year issued in London. Mr Mustard's clients, or potential clients, have done their best 99% of the time.

Just to get a ball park idea of the money involved let's assume that every PCN is for £160 and that they all get paid at the 50% value.

9,457,848 times £160 at 50% =  £756,627,840

That is money which the government would otherwise have to give councils towards their costs or that they would have to raise through council tax.

Of course, the whole sum isn't profit, there is a massive industry and hundreds or thousands of council staff behind this. 

When he has time away from his day job and the 50 hours a week spent fighting PCNs, he will look at the major costs of Barnet Council to collect their 278,209 PCNs issued in a year.

What is abundantly clear is that PCNs don't work. The stick has failed. We need a different solution.

The end, for now. 

 

 

PCNs - pragmatic advice - Covid-19

The above is advice, each local authority will make its own decisions about what to enforce and when. When he has a moment, Mr Mustard will start asking all local authorities in London what changes they have actually made & shame those who have not changed a thing. TfL have reacted quickly so fair play to them.

Do not enter a yellow box unless the box and your exit is clear.

Do not park on the pavement except where marked out for it.

Do not park across a dropped kerb on the corner of a road our outside a stranger's property.

Do not park on zebra crossing zig-zgas for safety's sake

Do not turn left or right where it is prohibited.

CCTV enforcement systems won't catch the virus but will catch you.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Doubly appealing

It is always interesting to compare Barnet to other London boroughs and it isn't the worst borough when it comes to parking as it doesn't tow cars away to a pound which costs the owner many a pound to get them back out of.

Parking tickets are an emotive subject and so it is hard to make an informed view based upon just the stories one hears about parking tickets. When looking at the daily register of new cases coming through to PATAS a thought struck Mr Mustard which was that a greater proportion of new cases seemed to relate to Barnet so he took a look at the figures (for parking and bus lane contraventions only - he ignored moving traffic offences as Barnet have not yet started to ticket for those - but they are getting there).

Here are the figures for the week which started on Monday 17th February 2014

PATAS	Barnet	Londonwide
	Appeals	Appeals	%
Mon	7	98	7
Tues	30	425	7
Weds	27	317	9
Thurs	24	345	7
Fri	33	351	9
Sat	2	38	5
Total	123	1,574	8
PCN issued	Barnet	London	%
Year to March 13	165,569	4,283,964	4

So Barnet account for one in every 12 Appeals to PATAS (8%), when they are one of 35 authorities whose Appeals are heard there, so straightaway that looks wrong. Then if you look at last year's figures (to March 13) we see that Barnet "only" issued 4% of all PCN in London, or 1 out of every 25 which looks rather keen (or venal and rapacious as one blog reader would say).

So what we see from this is that there are twice as many cases which get to PATAS as one would expect (at least in the random sample week). The reasons for this are impossible to know for sure but may include some or all of the following:

1 - Our NSL back office team being new to Barnet and based in Croydon simply aren't as good as NSL back office teams for other boroughs as they haven't yet built up any location history.

2 - The number of Barnet's motorists who have had enough of this disguised council tax have decided to stand and fight more often.

3 - Sites like this one, Pepipoo and Miss Feezance and others have helped to arm people with the information they need to mount an Appeal to PATAS.

4 - Once an Appeal at PATAS is successful motorists realise there is nothing to be frightened of and so appeal their next PCN.

5 - More borderline PCN are being issued which natural injustice drives people to Appeal.

6 - NSL aren't good at decision making when it comes to formal representations; they are blinkered by the money.

7 - The recession makes people more likely to fight.

8 - The Saracens zone is seen as unfair and has a greater proportion of appeals (nearly always successfully as well).

Remember that there is a quick guide to the process that you can download for free at the top left of the blog.

Keep those Appeals flowing. 

Mr Mustard will put up an example soon of how to complete a PATAS form. It is a 5 minute job.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard