Ticket issues after police power failure

Drivers looking to challenge speeding tickets are facing ‘days of delays’ because of a police power failure.

Frustrated drivers trying to contact West Mercia Police to dispute speeding tickets have complained that dozens of calls to the force’s camera ticket office have gone unanswered, and subsequent emails were left without reply.

West Mercia Police, which aims to respond to all enquiries within ten working days, said it is currently suffering from a further two-day delay in replying to ticket queries because of the hangover from last month’s power failure and an ever-increasing backlog of calls.

The force has asked those struggling to get in touch to remain patient and calls with eventually be answered.

Last month, the force was hit by a power failure which caused problems at its call centre in Hindlip and prevented staff and officers from accessing files.

The problems, which have remained for at least a fortnight since the outage, meant callers were met with pre-recorded messages, which gave no option to speak to staff, and instead told them to email the force with any queries.

A spokesperson for West Mercia Police Road Safety said: “We are currently experiencing a two-day delay on this standard to responses via the Camera Ticket Office West Mercia email address.

“This is due to a number of issues including the recent force-wide IT disruption which limited our ability to access some systems and a high volume of enquiries.

“Both the phone line and email address are operational.

“We receive a high number of telephone calls so if the line is busy, please try again later or send us an email. Please bear with us, emails will be responded to.

“Anyone who receives a notice of intended prosecution for a speeding offence is provided with details of how to access the West Mercia Public Access System where they can view details of the alleged offence.

“Anyone who has an enquiry is urged to visit the FAQs section on this site in the first instance where they may be able to find the information they are looking for.”