Parking fines

What to do if you've received a parking fine.

If you do not comply with the terms and conditions for parking in our council-owned car parks or if you ignore the parking regulations (lines and signs), you may receive a parking fine. This is also known as a penalty charge notice (PCN).  In some circumstances, we serve penalty charge notices using approved CCTV cameras.

Parking regulations

For the safety of pedestrians, protection of vehicles and general use of on and off street parking, we ask all car park and road users to park in accordance with regulations as set out by the Traffic Management Act 2004.

If you receive a parking fine

If you receive a parking fine, please don't ignore it as it won't go away. You will find simple, easy-to-follow payment instructions on the back. There is also a 50% discount if you pay the fine within 14 days of it being given.   If we serve the penalty charge notice by post because we have used a CCTV camera, you can get a 50% discount if you pay the fine  within 21 days of the notice being served.

If you cannot afford to pay the fine, please contact us to discuss other possible ways of paying.

Please note, if you would like to challenge the fine, please do not pay your parking fine, but contact us as soon as possible. You will find more details about how to challenge a parking fine below.

If you do not pay your fine (and you are not challenging it), we will contact the DVLA within 28 days to find out the contact details for the vehicle. We will then issue you with a Notice to Owner and the cost of the fine will increase. This does not apply to penalty charge notices that we have served by post because we have used a CCTV camera, as we already have your details, but the fine will increase if you do not pay the discounted amount. 

If we do not receive payment within a further 21 days, we will then be forced to contact the courts to register the debt, which will once again increase the fine. The final step is contacting the court to issue a warrant for the debt and to get bailiffs involved.

For more information, please see Our approach to parking enforcement page.  

Paying

You can pay your parking fine:

1. Online - by credit or debit card. Go to our secure online payment system. Make sure that you know the amount that you need to pay and have your card details to hand.

2. By post - by cheque or postal order (please do not send cash) to Rushmoor Borough Council, Parking Management, Council Offices, Farnborough Road, Farnborough, GU14 7JU.

3. In person - by cash, cheque, postal order (payable to Rushmoor Borough Council) or card at our council offices in Farnborough.

If you have received more than one parking fine and you don't know which one to pay first, please contact us using the contact details on this page. We can advise you on the best sequence of payment to minimise the total amount you have to pay.

If you don't have the money to pay your parking fine, please contact us. If some cases we will accept payment in instalments. If you ignore a parking fine, it could increase from £25 or £35 to anything up to £112. If you still don't pay, bailiff charges can add to this significantly. 

Challenging a parking fine

You can challenge a parking fine by completing our Challenge a parking fine form and explaining the reasons why you want to challenge the fine. You can also email or write to us. We aim to make a decision on your challenge within ten working days.

If you challenge your parking fine within 14 days, we will suspend the 50% discount period while we make a decision. Once we have made a decision, we will either cancel the fine or you will have another 14 days to pay the 50% discounted charge.

You can find more information about challenging a parking fine in our  Policy guidance for penalty charge notices [429kb].