Manchester City Council could be forced to repay thousands of bus lanes fines after an internal review discovered some charges were issued too late to be legally valid.
An error in the council’s automated system meant up to 23,500 penalty charge notices for bus lane contraventions were issued late over a three month period.
The law states that penalty charge notices must arrive in the post within 28 days unless the council needed to check details with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.
The council said that not all tickets would be invalid as extensions did apply in a significant proportion of cases. However, is it asking motorists who were fined between 2 October 2017 and 16 December 2017 to ask for their case to be reviewed.
Kim Dorrington, the council’s strategic director of highways, transport and engineering, said: ‘Although these penalty charge notices were all legitimately issued to drivers who had committed bus lane contraventions, it is of course extremely unsatisfactory than an administrative error meant a significant number were mailed out too late.
‘We would stress that most of the notices issued during this period were in time and that anyone who has paid has admitted liability. We would also point out that because there are circumstances where extensions to the 28 day limit apply, many of those notices sent out later than they should have been will still have been received in time.’
