Worcester: More than 200,000 parking charges made in error

More than 200,000 erroneous payments have been taken from car park users in Worcester

The scale of a city's parking machine glitch has emerged revealing more than 200,000 erroneous payments - £400,000 in total - were taken from customers.

The issue affecting card transactions at council sites in Worcester emerged last month.

The council said customers would be reimbursed by the technology provider, which apologised and said any incorrect charges would be refunded fully.

But funds have not appeared, leaving the council pledging legal action.

The company behind the machines, Flowbird Smart City UK, said the problem had been connected to a software bug which was introduced during a recent software upgrade.

The glitch has seen individual customers across a total of 15,000 parking sessions incorrectly charged multiple times for single card transactions.

Refunds had been due nearly a week ago according to the local authority, which on 7 October had revised the date to this week following consultation with Flowbird.

But as of Thursday evening, refunds had not yet been issued, the council confirmed, adding it had been having twice-daily meetings with the company.

• 'I've lost hundreds of pounds to parking glitch'

• Refunds delayed for parking machine woe

Andy Gynn said he was now up to 170 debits so far, totalling £795

When the issue emerged, card transactions were disabled at machines, but customers continued to be charged.

One customer the BBC spoke to at the start of the problems said he had seen £610 wrongly taken across 122 separate debits.

However, Andy Gynn said he was now up to 170 debits so far, totalling £795.

The small business owner described the experience as an "absolute nightmare" which had affected his company and "ruined" a holiday.

He said: "I was left hanging not knowing when I'm going to be refunded."

'Frustrating situation'

"This is a frustrating situation," said Shane Flynn, the council's director of finance, explaining refunds had "not been processed for two weeks".

A spokesperson for the authority added: "Worcester City Council is planning to take legal action over the delay in repayments to customers who have been wrongly charged multiple times for parking in its car parks and has instructed its lawyers to proceed in this matter."

A spokesperson for Flowbird Smart City UK said they wanted to assure customers any incorrect charges - including any banking charged incurred as a result - would be fully refunded and that back card payments would be "back up and running as soon as possible".

The company added: "To guard against a similar issue occurring, additional software has been installed to ensure the process is operating as expected.

"The issue experienced recently with Worcester City Council is regrettable, and it is unfortunate that individuals have been affected, but it is an isolated incident.

"We'd like to apologise to Worcester residents and visitors for any inconvenience this issue may have caused them."