Worcester: Refunds for parking machine glitch delayed

Andy Gynn said he lost £610 in 122 debits due to an error with the machines

Refunds have been delayed for drivers overcharged after using parking machines in Worcester.

The refunds had been due by Friday following a glitch involving payments at council car parks.

But Worcester City Council says it has been told by machine provider Flowbird refunds will begin next week instead.

About 1,500 people had multiple payments taken for transactions, with some losing hundreds of pounds.

The council has apologised to customers.

The authority said it was having twice-daily meetings with Flowbird which it had issued with a contractual breach notice while undertaking a review of arrangements between the parties.

Council leader Marc Bayliss previously told BBC Hereford and Worcester the problems had followed an upgrade to machines

The error related to the use of bank cards at parking machines which led to the system being disabled.

Issues were first reported last week but people were still having excessive sums taken from their accounts this week, reportedly because some banks took longer than others to process payments.

One motorist Andy Gynn said £610 was taken across 122 debits, putting his accounts into unarranged overdrafts just as he was due to go on holiday.

A spokesperson for the council said: "We are doing our utmost to resolve these issues as quickly as possible and would again like to sincerely apologise to all those affected.

"We would like to assure our customers that the matter continues to be a top priority for us and we are having twice-daily meetings with Flowbird to ensure that we can keep people updated on the situation, which is sadly not being resolved as speedily as we would wish.

"We will be in touch with all customers who have contacted us thus far to keep them informed and would urge everyone to refer to our website and social media for the latest information. We will ensure that nobody has suffered any financial loss as a result of this issue."