New research has shown that more than a quarter (27%) of complaints regarding council-issued parking tickets result in a cancellation.

Finance firm Zuto studied data from eight of the UK's largest councils, and of the 170,127 tickets contested between August 1 2014 and July 31 2015, 46,122 ended successfully with refunds totalling over £3.2 million.

Bristol was found to be the council which dished out the most hotly-contested parking tickets, with around one in ten of just under 85,000 parking fines issued by the local authority ending in successful challenges.

Of the councils surveyed, Edinburgh council issued the highest total amount of notices to drivers, with 231,556 tickets worth almost £14 million. The London Borough of Ealing was second with 150,919 fines (£12.4 million), while Birmingham with 122,871 (£8.6 million), Glasgow with 117,653 (£7 million) and Enfield with 99,400 (£4.6 million) completed the top five councils.

James Wilkinson, chief executive of Zuto said: “While, as drivers, we should accept responsibility when we have broken parking regulations, our research suggests that there are a lot of unfair tickets being slapped on windscreens around the UK.”

“With only one in five parking tickets actually being contested, there are probably a lot more drivers who are paying unfair fines.”

• For a comprehensive guide to battling parking and speeding fines, read our Fleet News special report from earlier this year.