Around 1 in 6 parking tickets are now being challenged in Devon
Of the roughly 14,000 parking appeals challenges last year, roughly 1 in 3 were upheld
We've exclusively learnt around one in six parking tickets is now being challenged in Devon - as the number of tickets given out each year has risen.
It comes as this week the AA called on the authority to review its use of double yellow lines - suggesting it was seemingly becoming increasingly harder for drivers to find convenient parking spaces.
A freedom of information request reveals between April 2024 and March 2025, 14,703 appeals were made against the 85.957 tickets issued by Devon County Council and of those 4,833 challenges were upheld.
Below are the reasons for why ticket appeals were upheld in each of the past three years
The figures have remained broadly similar for the past three years with 5,112 appeals upheld out of the 84,266 notices issued and 15,907 appeals in 2023 to 20-204, and 4,418 appeals upheld out of the 71,978 tickets issued in 2022 to 2023 out of 13,829 appeals.
The figures reveal more than 1,000 parking tickets a year are refunded due to problems with an online pay and display system - ie use of an app - with almost 400 tickets cancelled last year due to it being a 'foreign vehicle' and more than 1,000 because 'DVLA (has) no trace'.
Devon County Council collected £2,870,225.15 in 2024 to 2025 though 'parking fine revenue', with £2.6 million in 2023-2024 and £2.3 million in 2022-2023.
This week a committee of county councillors 'called in' a decision to increase pay and display prices over concerns it comes 'at a time when traders are struggling and businesses are closing, increasing the cost of visiting areas to contribute to the local economy seems counterproductive'.
The list of increased charges can be found here
They committee resolved to 'endorse' the proposals but continue to work in 'partnership' with the district councils. Councillor Dan Thomas, who oversees roads for the county council after May's local elections. said: "In reality our policy is that we increase on street parking every two years or at least we review it and we benchmark it against how much the district councils are charging for 'off street'.
"There's a very simple principle at stake here, it should be cheaper to park off street what we don't want is cars circulating around town centres looking for cheaper spaces on the street. Those spaces are meant to be short stay. In lots of towns a short period of time is free and then you pay for an hour or maybe two hours - but if you are there for any length of time we really want you in the district council off-street car parks.
"When we do generate surplus, if we generate a surplus we put that to really good use. I mean about £3.8 million is spent on subsidising the vast majority of the county's bus routes. if you took away all the bus routes in Devon that we subsidised there's a map and it's frightening at how few buses actually pay their own way."
This week Jack Cousens, the AA's head of roads' policy, said: "Drivers are telling us the real problem is finding safe and legal parking so we're asking local councils to try and help alleviate that problem by creating and investing in legal parking infrastructure.
"What we have seen from our research is that nearly two fifths of drivers admit to parking on double yellow lines at least once and around a quarter say they occasionally do so and one in ten admit that they are repeat offenders.
"There could be - for example - a review of the layout of the road where even one side of the street has double yellow lines and perhaps some on-street parking available on the other side, that kind of rethink and reset might help communities."