A QUARTER of parking tickets handed out each year in Wirral are later cancelled by the authority, according to details released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Since deregulated parking was introduced in the borough in 2004, between 39-41,000 tickets have been issued each year.

The authority has a contract with NSL – formerly NCP – to provide parking enforcement across the borough.

But, according to data released by the council, between eight to 10,000 tickets a year are later cancelled.

Last year, 8,652 tickets were cancelled, saving motorists £215,300 – at the £25 discounted ticket rate. Reasons for the cancellations range from car owners subsequently demonstrating that they held a blue badge – for those with a disability – or actually had a valid ticket to park, to errors by parking attendants, owners unable to be traced and ticket machine faults.

The figures also revealed that each year around 3,000 tickets are cancelled after “representations” from disgruntled motorists are accepted by the authority.

The Road Traffic Act 1991 allowed councils to take on enforcement of parking – know as Decriminalised Parking Enforcement (DPE).

Under DPE, parking “offences” became “contraventions”, and parking attendants, employed by the local authority, issued (civil) Penalty Charge Notices (PCN) in cases where previously traffic wardens employed by the police had handed out parking tickets. In 2008, tough new powers for Wirral’s traffic wardens were also introduced, allowing them to fine people up to £70 for certain offences.

It is part of a two-tiered system which allows parking attendants – renamed Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs) – to issue £50 fines for lesser offences. They had carried a £60 fine, reduced to £30 if paid within 14 days.