Drivers repaid £56k after parking fine errors

About 5% of thousands of incorrectly issued parking fines by a council have so far been refunded.

Reading Borough Council admitted in October it wrongly issued about 6,100 penalty charge notices (PCNs), mostly on the East Reading Red Route, and in parking zones between 2013 and 2024.

The authority's chief executive said it has made "every effort" to "correct the regrettable situation".

It said it has so far paid out on 317 claims and refunded about £56,300.

In an effort to get people to apply for refunds, the council said it sent 1,250 letters to motorists whose details it still had on file.

No further fines have been issues on routes with incorrect Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO) since errors were discovered, it added.

But the process for rectifying the incorrect TROs on the East Reading Red Route went out for a statutory consultation in December and ended on 5 January.

The corrected TRO, which will allow enforcement, including fining, is expected to be in place from later this month.

Jackie Yates, the council's chief executive, said: "Every effort has been made to correct the regrettable situation which resulted in penalty charge notices being incorrectly issued.

"A campaign to reach out to motorist who may be eligible for reimbursement and a scheme to process claims and issue refunds was swiftly put in place.

"We are also progressing with correcting the TROs which were found to have irregularities," she added.

"Any motorists who believe they have paid incorrectly issued penalty charge notices and have not yet acted, can still visit the council website and follow the process for making a claim."

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