Informal challenge

You can make an informal challenge at any time within the first 28 days of the parking ticket being issued.

If we receive your informal challenge within 14 days of the date being issued (the discounted period) and your challenge is rejected, we will give you a further 14 days to pay at the discounted rate.

If we receive your informal challenge between 15 and 28 days of the ticket being issued (after the discounted period) and your challenge is rejected, you will have to pay the full amount.

How to make an informal challenge

By law, if you wish to object or appeal a parking ticket you have to do this in writing. The easiest way to do this is using our online challenge system.

By selecting the below link you consent to us collecting and storing the personal data you provide for the service requested. Read our Privacy Notice to find out how we use your personal data.

When you're filling in your appeal try to give us as much detail as you can about why you feel the parking ticket should be cancelled. The online system will time out after 20 minutes, we therefore advise that you write your appeal elsewhere before pasting it into the text box provided.

If you do not supply evidence to support your claim (e.g. a disabled badge holder not providing a copy of your badge, reporting a vehicle breakdown without evidence of breakdown or claiming to be loading/unloading but not providing delivery notes/receipts/invoices to prove this), your appeal will be rejected.

Challenges normally take up to five working days to process.

What happens next?

Once your appeal has been received, the parking ticket will be put on hold and will not progress until a decision has been made. If you provide an email address when appealing online, you will receive the response via email. The email will come from donotreply@citysmarti.co.uk. If you do not provide an email address, you'll get the decision via first class post.

If your challenge is successful, the parking ticket will be cancelled and no further action will be taken.

If your challenge is rejected, provided we have received your informal challenge within the discounted period of 14 days, then you will be given an additional 14 days to pay at the reduced rate.

If your challenge was received outside the 14 day discounted period, then the full amount of the parking ticket is payable. If you then do not pay the ticket within 28 days you will receive a document called a Notice to Owner (NtO) explaining the next stage of the process, which is a formal representation.