Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) issued in Teignmouth

“Under the freedom of information act I wish to know

1) How many parking tickets (fines/ penalty notices) were issued between 2008 and 2014 (this can be calendar year or financial – whichever is easier to obtain) in:
a) The area known (at the time) as Den Promenade, Teignmouth
b) The area known (at the time) as Den Crescent, Teignmouth

Information provided below:-

Year Den Promenade, Teignmouth Den Crescent, Teignmouth Total
01/05/2008 – 31/12/2008 114 60 174
01/01/2009 – 31/12/2009 62 80 142
01/01/2010 – 31/12/2010 101 100 201
01/01/2011 – 31/12/2011 86 130 216
01/01/2012 – 31/12/2012 101 104 205
01/01/2013 – 31/12/2013 156 192 348
01/03/2014 – 31/03/2014 45 53 98
01/04/2014 – 31/12/2014 159 240 399
 Totals 824 959 1783


2) I would like to know how many of these tickets have since been challenged, and of those challenges how many were upheld?

From the commencement of Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE) in May 2008 until the end of March 2014, on-street enforcement was undertaken by the district councils on behalf of Devon County Council (DCC) using a different IT service provider. DCC brought on-street CPE in-house on 01/04/2014.

Unfortunately Devon County Council is unable to supply you with the information you request under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act.  Under the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 public authorities are not obliged to comply with requests which exceed the cost limit of £450 (equating to 18 hours of time).

Whilst the information you have requested in question 2) does sit within our electronic and paper filing systems, these systems are not set up to easily provide us with the type of information you have requested.

DCC is unable to run a report to filter for the requested data due to the format and compatibility of the data transferred over from Teignbridge District Council.   In order to locate, retrieve and extract this data, DCC would need to manually check each of the 1783 PCN’s issued in the two requested locations to find whether it was appealed and/or paid.

On the basis of 2 minutes per PCN, DCC estimates that this would take in the region of 60 hours, which is clearly well in excess of the time public authorities are required to spend responding to FOI requests.

However, if you would like to refine your request so that it may fit within the 18 hour limit as outlined above, we would be happy to review your request.

 


3) I would like to know the total financial value of the parking tickets issued, Should this require extra work (i.e. above the 18 hours) I will accept basic information such as “the standard fine was £25 if paid promptly, rising to say £50 after a set period” (allowing me to take a reasonable understanding).”

Please note that there are two levels of contravention. A higher level contravention which is £70, discounted to £35 if paid within the first 14 days, and a lower level contravention which is £50, discounted to £25 if paid within the first 14 days.

As for question 2 (above), unfortunately DCC is unable to supply you with this information under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act.  DCC is unable to run a report, so would need to manually review each PCN issued to ascertain whether it was a higher or lower level contravention.

On the basis of 2 minutes per PCN, DCC estimates that this would take in the region of 60 hours, which is clearly well in excess of the time public authorities are required to spend responding to FOI requests.

However, if you would like to refine your request so that it may fit within the 18 hour limit as outlined above, we would be happy to review your request.