Worcester: Parking glitch firm loses council contract

The council had "completely lost confidence" with Flowbird, leader Chris Mitchell said

A parking machine company that overcharged drivers by almost £400,000 has lost its contract with a council.

Worcester City Council has informed Flowbird, which runs the machines on its behalf, it has terminated its deal after a string of problems.

Due to a glitch, the money was taken in error across 15,000 parking sessions at council sites in Worcester last year.

"It's a tough decision but one that had to be made," leader Chris Mitchell said after two "significant breaches".

The problems were raised in October last year and went on to affect about 1,500 people across 14 sites in Worcester, with some having multiple payments taken and losing hundreds of pounds.

About 183,000 repayments were arranged but were made later than Flowbird first promised, leading to the council saying it was "reviewing" the deal with the ticket provider.

Charges to rise

Confirming the council was cutting ties with the firm and its payment partner Elavon, Mr Mitchell said he was "extremely disappointed" and the council had "completely lost confidence" with Flowbird.

"The decision hasn't been made lightly," he said.

"It's a tough decision but one that had to be made.

"We've had two instances now in the last two years, the most recent obviously where £390,000 was wrongfully taken from people's accounts.

"Fortunately that has all gone back but unfortunately I think those two significant breaches of contract have left councillors and officers with no other decision than to part company with Flowbird and to terminate that contract."

An issue in 2021 saw Flowbird taking payments from drivers more than a month-and-a-half after they had used the city's car parks, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Last week, the council agreed to move to join forces with different supplier Metric and new payment machines will be installed in the coming months.

Fees at city council-run car parks are set to rise to help fill a hole of at least £1m in its budget.