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#Post#: 87266--------------------------------------------------
Exploring an idea to make PCN appeals easier using tech, would l
ove your thoughts
By: FineShield Date: August 26, 2025, 8:34 am
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Hi all,
I have been reading through the posts here and it is clear how
much time and knowledge goes into challenging PCNs. The advice
shared is great, but most drivers never get this far. They just
pay up, even when they may have grounds to appeal, because it
feels like too much hassle.
I am part of a small team of software developers and we have
been exploring whether there could be a simple way to guide
people through an appeal, prepare everything properly, and
submit it on their behalf. The service would be designed to make
it super easy to appeal and would run on a no-win, no-fee basis.
We have also mapped out how AI could help structure the
challenges, but the focus would be keeping it straightforward
for drivers.
I want to be clear, I am not here to sell anything. We have not
built anything yet. Right now I am just trying to understand
whether this is a service that drivers would actually value, or
whether you feel most people are better off doing it themselves
with the right advice.
I am not here to sell anything, just curious:
•
•
now?
•
Thanks for any honest feedback.
Callum
#Post#: 87307--------------------------------------------------
Re: Exploring an idea to make PCN appeals easier using tech, wou
ld love your thoughts
By: andy_foster Date: August 26, 2025, 12:27 pm
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Is the idea to make it easier to appeal PCNs, or is it to get AI
to generate a sketchy app, feed it by stealing our content, get
someone else to fund it, make money using the AI's
"understanding" of stolen content, and get us to provide
consultancy services for free to assist you in your venture?
And altruistically don't charge clients who you end up costing
money when your AI gets it wrong.
#Post#: 87345--------------------------------------------------
Re: Exploring an idea to make PCN appeals easier using tech, wou
ld love your thoughts
By: DWMB2 Date: August 26, 2025, 3:03 pm
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As a preliminary matter, it isn't clear whether your proposed
service is to support with council Penalty Charge Notices,
private Parking Charge Notices, or both.
The first thought that came to my mind, is that I'm not entirely
sure to what extent your service would solve what you suggest is
the problem. Your premise is that too many motorists simply pay
up without a fight (which I'd agree with), because it is "too
much hassle" (which is presumably true for some, but who knows
how many).
In many cases, both private and council, an appellant who wishes
to challenge his 'ticket' must be prepared to fight it all the
way, either to the tribunal in the case of council tickets, or
to the County Court in the case of private parking charges. Will
your service offer in person representation for users at court
and/or tribunals? If not, then I'm struggling to see what
"hassle" you would be saving people, that this forum is not
already saving them for free.
#Post#: 87364--------------------------------------------------
Re: Exploring an idea to make PCN appeals easier using tech, wou
ld love your thoughts
By: sparx Date: August 26, 2025, 6:49 pm
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The concern with "AI" is that not every case is straightforward.
Whilst a system to try and get all the required info from users
and format it into a standardised report would work, I'm not
sure AI can help here, especially if it were to start
hallucinating and costing people money.
#Post#: 87377--------------------------------------------------
Re: Exploring an idea to make PCN appeals easier using tech, wou
ld love your thoughts
By: roythebus Date: August 27, 2025, 3:19 am
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Personally I have no faith or trust in anything produced by AI.
Much the same as I have little faith in some of the numpties
employed by local authorities who dish out PCNs like confetti.
#Post#: 87462--------------------------------------------------
Re: Exploring an idea to make PCN appeals easier using tech, wou
ld love your thoughts
By: FineShield Date: August 27, 2025, 11:10 am
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Thank you to the above who kindly replied.
Just to be clear, we are not here "stealing content", and we
don't need anyone to fund this.
The target initially would be PCN, moving onto private tickets
later.
I should have been clearer on the idea and the problem it
solves.
This would be a chat interface (based on WhatsApp) whereby a
user can snap a photo of a ticket, get instant guidance on what
evidence to collect on the spot, and the AI would ask questions
to analyse, firstly if there is a potential appeal, followed by
the ability to collate the evidence and submit to a council, all
without leaving whattsapp and completed in probably less than 3
minutes.
On the backend, a human would check every submission before it
goes to a council.
So the idea is, this is about speed and convenience on a
no-win/no-fee basis.
I completely understand the scepticism currently around AI, but
the future is here I'm afraid. We have built much more complex
solutions than this, so whether it can be done is not the
question. The real question is, is this worth building? Is there
an appetite for such a service?
Many thanks for any replies again, I'm not here to offend or
sell you anything. Just looking for some expert opinions on the
matter.
#Post#: 87526--------------------------------------------------
Re: Exploring an idea to make PCN appeals easier using tech, wou
ld love your thoughts
By: DWMB2 Date: August 28, 2025, 4:18 am
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[quote author=FineShield link=topic=7804.msg87462#msg87462
date=1756311045]
Is there an appetite for such a service?
[/quote]
This might not be the best forum to ask this question - if
someone has made it to this forum, they are more likely to be
suitably determined to put in the work required to challenge the
ticket with our help, rather than needing someone to do it for
them. Although thinking logically, given there are a high
proportion of people who are prepared to part with £45-70 right
off the bat to make a PCN go away, one would imagine at least
some of those would be prepared to pay a sum less than that to
make it go away, if there was a good prospect of success.
Although that takes me back to my initial point, that a fair
number of successful cases are only successful after reaching
the tribunal. I am assuming that your service will not be
representing people at tribunal hearings, as you have not
indicated otherwise. If that is the case I feel like there's the
potential for quite a lot of unhappy customers, who use your
service to challenge their PCNs without the hassle, and then
find themselves facing the choice of paying the full PCN amount,
with the discount being off the table, or enduring significantly
increased hassle in the form of a tribunal.
#Post#: 87535--------------------------------------------------
Re: Exploring an idea to make PCN appeals easier using tech, wou
ld love your thoughts
By: andy_foster Date: August 28, 2025, 5:43 am
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The OP has ostensibly sought our advice on the viability of a
scheme (?sp) without giving any meaningful indication of what it
is intended to achieve, or where the expertise/knowledge would
be coming from.
The only parts of the scheme that are apparent are
something, something
AI
profit
#Post#: 87663--------------------------------------------------
Re: Exploring an idea to make PCN appeals easier using tech, wou
ld love your thoughts
By: FineShield Date: August 29, 2025, 6:27 am
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Thank you for the input once again. You are right, this is
definitely not the place to be pitching this potential idea. The
tone feels very defensive all around.
Andy, all the best with the trolling.
#Post#: 87667--------------------------------------------------
Re: Exploring an idea to make PCN appeals easier using tech, wou
ld love your thoughts
By: DWMB2 Date: August 29, 2025, 6:50 am
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[quote author=FineShield link=topic=7804.msg87663#msg87663
date=1756466873]
The tone feels very defensive all around.
[/quote]
With respect, you've signed up to a forum that (in this guise
and as its predecessor) has been offering free advice to
motorists for over 20 years, to ask for input on a service that
would seek to make a private profit for attempting to use AI to
do broadly the same thing - I think a certain level of
scepticism is both expected and healthy.
There have been plenty of services crop up over the years
offering to make PCNs go away for a "small fee" - many of their
customers have subsequently ended up turning to forums like
this, when their appeals failed and it became clear that the
private appeals service's support didn't extend to
tribunal/court representation.
If people want to pay someone else to send their appeals for
them, fine. My main issue with paid for appeals services is that
they seldom offer support at the tribunal/court stage, which is
generally where a layman would most require it.
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