Parking fines increase as charges top £85 million

Parking tickets or Parking Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) are on the rise, reaching £85 million across Northern Ireland over the last two years.

On street parking, bus lane contraventions and three park and ride sites show a steady increase, with millions of pounds charged each month.

For October 2024, parking charges reached a total of £4.90 million across Northern Ireland, rising to £5.69 million in November, £6.27 million in December and increasing further in January to £6.99 million.

The most gathered in the last two years was in March 2024 with a total of £7.42 million – bringing the total amount of PCN revenue from April 2023 to January 2025 to £85.35 million.

That’s a year-on-year increase of 16%, £26.78 million from April-December 2023, compared to £31.16 million during the same period in 2024. 

Traffic attendants issue Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) to illegally parked vehicles, a penalty charge is not a fine, it’s a civil charge owed to a civil authority, that is the Department for Infrastructure (DfI).

In terms of the number of PCNs issued for on street parking offences in Northern Ireland in the last quarter, Belfast comes out on top with 5385 in October 2024, 5101 in November and 4310 in December.

In second place was Derry-Londonderry with 1065 in October, 953 in November and 873 in December.

The Northern Ireland public are querying the PCNs with thousands of drivers challenging the charges.  The total amount of parking tickets successfully appealed for on street between 1 April 2023 and 31 January 2025 was 7455.

In terms of how many were successfully appealed per council area, for on street between 1 April 2023 and 31 January 2025, the most was in the Belfast City council area with 3809, followed by Newry and Mourne with 763 and Lisburn and Castlereagh with 555.

For the off street appeals the number of successful appeals between 1 April 2023 and 1 April 2024 showed Fermanagh and Omagh had the most with 1455, followed by Derry-Londonderry and Strabane with 1149.

Drivers can’t make an online challenge until the PCN information has been uploaded, however it’s normally live on the same day the PCN has been issued. If it isn’t, drivers can contact the Parking Enforcement Processing Unit.

Motoring experts at CompareNI.com took a look at the most common ways drivers are getting tickets, to help raise awareness of this growing issue;

Some of the popular reasons people get parking tickets:

-Parked with some of the car covering a double yellow line

-More parking time was purchased after the maximum stay had been reached and the vehicle had not moved

-Returning or continuing to park in a ‘no return’ area

-Parking on a single yellow line or area with kerb markings – designed for loading only

-Not parked correctly within the parking markings

-And of course, parked outside the given parking hours for that particular spot.

Commenting on the figures, Ian Wilson, Managing Director and car insurance expert at CompareNI.com, said: “Parking charges are another expensive issue for drivers in Northern Ireland, and for the most part, are avoidable.  

“The fact that the PCN revenue from April 2023 to January 2025 is a staggering £85 million means this growing issue isn’t going away.

“It’s sensible for drivers to recap parking laws and even check the restrictions for each area online on their phone as it isn’t always obvious what the restrictions are in certain locations.

“Motoring has never been so expensive and with the fluctuating costs of fuel, tax and insurance, additional charges are the last thing drivers here need.”

CompareNI.com helps drivers across Northern Ireland compare and find savings on all sorts of car insurance, including young driver, older driver and breakdown cover.

References

*https://www.opendatani.gov.uk/dataset/penalty-charge-notice-data

**https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/services/challenge-parking-ticket-penalty-charge-notice

The Department’s finance system does not retain PCN revenue by council area.  The total amount of PCN revenue accumulated each month, in the last two financial years, from onstreet parking and bus lane contraventions along with that from the Department’s three Park and Ride sites is as follows.  Off Street revenue collected on behalf of the local councils is returned to the councils and not included in the totals below.

Yearly Comparison 

2023	£m	2024	£m
Apr	0.54	Apr	0.69
May	1.2	May	1.39
Jun	1.75	Jun	2.05
Jul	2.3	Jul	2.73
Aug	2.8	Aug	3.39
Sep	3.55	Sep	4.05
Oct	4.27	Oct	4.9
Nov	4.91	Nov	5.69
Dec	5.46	Dec	6.27
Total	26.78	Total	31.16
Year on year increase of £4.38 million, 16%

Full Statistics as Provided by DfI (via a FOI request)

2023	£m	2024	£m	2025	£m
Apr	0.54	Jan	6.17	Jan	6.99
May	1.2	Feb	6.83
Jun	1.75	Mar	7.42
Jul	2.3	Apr	0.69
Aug	2.8	May	1.39
Sep	3.55	Jun	2.05
Oct	4.27	Jul	2.73
Nov	4.91	Aug	3.39
Dec	5.46	Sep	4.05
		Oct	4.9
		Nov	5.69
		Dec	6.27

Councils	PCNs successfully appealed
	On-street and Park	Off-street Car
	& Ride sites	Parks
	(1st Apr 23 – 31st Jan 25)	(1st Apr 23 – 1st Apr 24)
Antrim & Newtownabbey	124	0*
Ards and North Down Borough Council	236	941
Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon	342	754
Belfast City	3809	839
Causeway Coast & Glens	282	0*
Derry & Strabane	474	1149
Fermanagh & Omagh	254	1455
Lisburn & Castlereagh	555	473
Mid & East Antrim	296	0*
Mid Ulster	320	544
Newry Mourne & Down	763	638
*The Department were not responsible for car park enforcement in this council area.