Cost of parking blunder still unknown

Questions still remain over how much the council is expected to have to pay back to drivers who were unnecessarily charged thousands of times for parking in the city.

At least 1,500 drivers are believed to have been needlessly charged several times for parking in Worcester because of a blunder over card payments.

Worcester City Council has finally responded to questions about how much money it expects to have to pay back but is still waiting for the final figure to be confirmed.

Refunds were expected to start appearing in bank accounts from Monday (October 10) but some drivers were still complaining that several payments had needlessly been taken last week including one Worcester man who had been forced to hand over £85 for a single stay.

Bosses at the council are “reviewing” their deal with ticket provider Flowbird, which runs the city’s machines on the council’s behalf, saying the problems have not been fixed as quickly as they would have liked.

A similar fault just over a year ago saw drivers charged several times for stays at the city council’s car parks – with many forced to pay for trips they had made months earlier.

The council has continued to apologise but reaffirmed that it is not at fault for drivers being overcharged and it had been “reassured” a year ago that checks had been put in place to pick up delays in payments being processed.

The council also said a “very small” number of people have said that money continues to be taken out of their accounts after staying in the city’s car parks but it has “not yet established” whether these are one-offs or part of the wider problem.

Last week, the council vowed to also pay back any bank fees or overdraft fees charged because of the overpayments.

It was first revealed last Wednesday (September 28) that several drivers had been charged multiple times at once for parking in Worcester due to a “software issue” and that had increased to 1,500 people in less than a week.