PCNs are the bane of many drivers’ existence. From getting caught out by the seemingly endless Bus Lane vs Bus Gate confusion to the ever-expanding low-emission zones, it can sometimes feel like councils are determined to catch you out.

So we wanted to dig deeper, and find out exactly how much councils are making from drivers. To do this, we sent out Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to over 200 councils around the UK. After waiting patiently, we managed to secure a nationwide database of PCN data.

We visualised the campaign on an interactive campaign page created with Claude, allowing readers to see which streets in the UK are the most-fined, as well as giving them a tool to search their own post code. We also created visual assets showing the councils who generate the most income from PCN fines, the most common type of fines and the councils who have seen the largest year-over-year increase in PCN data.

The campaign featured on most UK regional websites securing 67 brand mentions and 46 links. The campaign was so popular, journalists wrote multiple stories for the same publications, and now reach out to us regularly for further stories.