Council apologises after every vehicle in car park wrongly fined in huge blunder

17 May 2023 , 22:00

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The entire car park was given tickets due to a council error (Image: Jam Press/SAM GILDERSLEVE)

A council has apologised after all the vehicles in a car park were fined by mistake.

Cars parked at Railway Place and Duke Street car parks in High Wycombe this week were hit with £70 penalty notices by Buckinghamshire Council.

The council had put up a small A4 sign saying two car parks would be closed to allow for installation of new EV charging bays.

But the council has now confirmed that drivers who got a fine after missing the sign will have all their fines cancelled as the signage was insufficient.

The council said the error occurred after a decision was wrongly taken to close off the entire car park when a suspension should have been limited to a smaller area.

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The council will cancel all the fines (Jam Press)

Councillor Steven Broadbent, Buckinghamshire Council's cabinet member for transport said: "We want to apologise to the people who parked at Railway Place and Duke Street car parks in High Wycombe this week and who received parking tickets during a closure of the car park.

"Whilst we do enforce parking across the county these tickets should not have been issued and we will be reversing the parking tickets (PCNs) to everyone who received them.

The small sign put up by the council to announce the suspension of parking in the Railway Place car park in High Wycombe (Jam Press/Ben Smyth)

"Only a small number of parking bays should have been closed to install brand new EV charging bays rather than the whole car park and we did not give our customers enough notice of this action.

"We are sorry for any inconvenience and upset caused. Anyone who has been ticketed should take no further action as the notices will be cancelled, and anyone who has already paid the PCN charge will be refunded."

Catherine Wylie