Drivers left baffled as traffic warden issues parking fines to every driver in car park
Drivers were left baffled after a traffic warden appeared to go vigilante and issue a ticket to every single car in a car park.
Finding a parking space can be tough at the best of times, and paying to park is set to become more difficult for some with several areas removing pay and display machines and forcing motorists to rely on apps.
Many drivers will be all too familiar with the sinking feeling of returning to your car, only to see the bright yellow envelope of doom stuck to the windscreen.
It's less common for an entire car park to be ticketed though - prompting speculation that one overzealous ticket warden had gone on a rampage.
Advert
Motorists flocked to social media to speculate why every vehicle at the car park at High Wycombe Station was issued with a parking ticket.
Some believed it was a computer error, while others suggested it could even have been some sort of leafleting campaign and not parking tickets at all.
Commuter Heleen Jalvingh lives in High Wycombe, was among those who parked there.
She paid via an app, and glanced at the signs out of habit, claiming she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, and hadn't received any notification on the app she used to pay.
But when Heleen returned to her vehicle she found that she, along with every other driver in the car park, had been slapped with a parking fine by Buckinghamshire Council.
The incident made its way onto Reddit as well, with one post drily remarking that the parking warden had 'made his bonus today'.
Speculation abounded about the cause, with a lot of guesses that got very close to the truth.
Heleen told the BBC: "To basically see all the cars with a fine does make me think that this has been a matter of poor communication by the council as apparently nobody realised that we were not allowed to park here."
It turned out that part of the car park had in fact been closed so that new charging bays for electric vehicles could be installed. However, people had been ticketed as though the entire car park was shut, instead of just the section with the new charging stations.
Buckinghamshire Council has since apologised for the error, cancelled the fines, and promised to issue a full refund to anyone who had already paid the £70 fine.
Steven Broadbent, Buckinghamshire Council's cabinet member for transport, told BBC News: "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 to everyone who received them.
"Only a small number of parking bays should have been closed to install the 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."
Kit Roberts