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4,700 could get parking rebates because surcharges broke the rules
AROUND 4,700 motorists who paid parking fines using credit cards could be entitled to a rebate.
They account for 10 per cent of the 47,000 drivers fined since 2006.
The Courier reported last month how the 2.6 per cent surcharge on credit card payments contravenes Department of Transport guidelines and was recently scrapped.
Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that since the council took over responsibility for parking enforcement in November 2006, it has raised 1,278,000 in fines.
That follows the issuing of 47,000 parking contravention notices.
The total income from credit cards during that period was 123,400 of which 3,200 came from the handling fee.
Car parking campaigner Neil Herron, a director of Parking Appeals Ltd, has threatened to take another council to the High Court over the issue and has also written to the council's chief executive Owen Williams to complain.
The Parking and Traffic Appeals Service adjudicator Michael Greenslade ruled earlier this year that parking tickets issued by Camden Council were invalid if they included a credit card surcharge.
According to a Calderdale spokesman, the council had always imposed the charge.
It was removed it after the council received the results of a traffic penalty tribunal, held in Bristol.
Figures show that total income from parking fines is falling from 551,752 in 2007/8 to 428,225 last year.
During the first five months of this year, the council received 153,000.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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