One in 10 attempts to buy parking ‘fails’

MORE than one in 10 attempts to buy tickets at two Wokingham town centre car parks failed in the space of a year, the Local Democracy Reporting Service can reveal, after concerns were raised that ‘errors’ are causing people to be fined.

As many as 7,566 attempts to buy tickets by card from parking machines in Easthampstead Road East and West car parks in Wokingham town centre were ‘aborted’ between February last year and this year – 12% of the 60,280 card transactions recorded.

Wokingham Borough Council – which runs the car parks – said there are many reasons a purchase can fail. These include if someone tries to check out after they’ve stayed longer than the maximum time limit, and if the machine is out of order.

The figures were revealed in a freedom of information request after a charity shop volunteer said he’d been fined by the council following difficulties using the machines.

Brian Turner said he was fined after being unable to ‘check out’ of Easthampstead Park West on February 29.

He said he’d been experiencing problems for more than a year, and he had seen other people having similar trouble. He feared errors would leave others at risk of fines, or that they would end up staying away from Wokingham town centre.

In March he said: “It’s just causing anxiety over parking.”

After reporting a similar error to Wokingham Borough Council in March, council staff found he had been automatically checked out after overstaying.

The staff member told him: “You cannot purchase further payment to extend your stay beyond the maximum amount of four hours. There is no return within the same day, this is why your further requests to check-in have been aborted.

“This is in keeping with the signage at the locations.”

The staff member added that they had tested the machine themselves and found no error.

But Mr Turner told the LDRS the machine had given him ‘no indication’ that he’d been automatically checked out.

He said: “There’s no feedback. It just says error and you’re left with nothing. The software is old and needs to be updated.”

In response to the freedom of information request, Wokingham Borough Council said it couldn’t determine the reason for each failed transaction. However, it said transactions could fail for several reasons.

Including: “Trying to check out following maximum stay auto check out for example: all transactions for previous day will be auto checked out at 6am so anyone checking out after that will be aborted.

“Trying to check out after two hours in a two-hour maximum stay car park.”

Transactions can also fail if a customer tries to check out after pre-paying, if the machine’s attempts to contact the bank time out, if the customer’s bank account doesn’t have enough money, if their card has been reported as stolen or if the machine is out of order.