City's parking nightmares: Parking Fiasco II
Norwich Evening News
DAVID POWLES, NAOMI CANTON
Hundreds of motorists will escape parking fines in Norwich after a printing blunde
r on the tickets.
As exclusively revealed in the Evening News earlier this month, Norwich City Council was already aware it facing having to write off thousands of pounds in unpaid fines after a legal problem - and now City Hall has officially admitted the blunder.
The news means Norwich City Council will lose about £75,000 in revenue from fines because of the discovery of a technical error on its tickets which means that drivers caught parking illegally up to August 29 with outstanding fines will not have to pay.
The council was adamant those who did pay promptly would not get a refund despite its glitch.
Drivers parking illegally are given £60 fines though this is halved if they pay within two weeks.
City council hastily changed its tickets on August 29 following a High Court hearing which indicated that failure to state clearly the date on which a ticket was issued and the date of the offence meant the ticket was void.
But Simon Nicholls, from Belmore's solicitors, said: “If these tickets have been found to be flawed, then arguably somebody who has paid the fine should be able to go back to the city council in good faith and ask them to quash it.
“If the council doesn't do that, it would be open to someone who is aggrieved to go the High Court and ask for the decision to be judicially reviewed.
“What the council should do in good faith is give all the parking fines back. It's a no win situation for the poor person who has paid their fine and a victory for the person who hasn't.”
Alan Waters, the council's executive member for resources, said the decision would affect councils up and down the country.
“We acted in good faith when we first produced these tickets and we are very disappointed,” he said.
Traffic wardens issued 35,549 penalty charge notices in the city between April 1, 2005, and March this year. The council made a £320,000 profit in 2004-05 which was ploughed back to Norfolk County Council and used to fund roadworks and traffic improvements in the Norwich area. The news comes after a Freedom Of Information request revealed the city's Prince of Wales Road was one of the worst in England for fining motorists.
Drivers had more than £117,960 of tickets slapped on their vehicles in the past year and there were only nine other streets in the country with more fines.
The other three streets in the city where motorists got the highest number of parking tickets in the past year were Colegate where 1,669 tickets were handed out, Cathedral Street where 1,104 were issued and St Benedicts Street where 862 fixed penalties were given drivers.
DAVID POWLES, NAOMI CANTON
Hundreds of motorists will escape parking fines in Norwich after a printing blunde
r on the tickets.As exclusively revealed in the Evening News earlier this month, Norwich City Council was already aware it facing having to write off thousands of pounds in unpaid fines after a legal problem - and now City Hall has officially admitted the blunder.
The news means Norwich City Council will lose about £75,000 in revenue from fines because of the discovery of a technical error on its tickets which means that drivers caught parking illegally up to August 29 with outstanding fines will not have to pay.
The council was adamant those who did pay promptly would not get a refund despite its glitch.
Drivers parking illegally are given £60 fines though this is halved if they pay within two weeks.
City council hastily changed its tickets on August 29 following a High Court hearing which indicated that failure to state clearly the date on which a ticket was issued and the date of the offence meant the ticket was void.
But Simon Nicholls, from Belmore's solicitors, said: “If these tickets have been found to be flawed, then arguably somebody who has paid the fine should be able to go back to the city council in good faith and ask them to quash it.
“If the council doesn't do that, it would be open to someone who is aggrieved to go the High Court and ask for the decision to be judicially reviewed.
“What the council should do in good faith is give all the parking fines back. It's a no win situation for the poor person who has paid their fine and a victory for the person who hasn't.”
Alan Waters, the council's executive member for resources, said the decision would affect councils up and down the country.
“We acted in good faith when we first produced these tickets and we are very disappointed,” he said.
Traffic wardens issued 35,549 penalty charge notices in the city between April 1, 2005, and March this year. The council made a £320,000 profit in 2004-05 which was ploughed back to Norfolk County Council and used to fund roadworks and traffic improvements in the Norwich area. The news comes after a Freedom Of Information request revealed the city's Prince of Wales Road was one of the worst in England for fining motorists.
Drivers had more than £117,960 of tickets slapped on their vehicles in the past year and there were only nine other streets in the country with more fines.
The other three streets in the city where motorists got the highest number of parking tickets in the past year were Colegate where 1,669 tickets were handed out, Cathedral Street where 1,104 were issued and St Benedicts Street where 862 fixed penalties were given drivers.
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