A committee which investigated a mistake in the district council's off-street parking enforcement has recognised the situation could have been prevented.

In October an adjudicator allowed an appeal against a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) which discovered the off-street Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) was invalid.

The decision resulted in the council being forced to waive around £24,000 worth of unpaid penalties.

Councillor Anthony Rowlands, chairman of the car parking working party, which met this week to discuss the error, said: “I apologise to residents for the difficulties caused as a result of technical errors, starting in 2005, in the draft of Traffic Regulation Orders.

“Internal processes should have been sufficiently robust to stop this happening.

“As portfolio holder responsible for parking service, I requested that the review undertaken by the Chief Finance Officer was completed swiftly and reported to the member-led committee in December.”

He added: “Overall, our parking services department performs a challenging task with creditable efficiency and responsiveness.

“Councillors from all parties, residents and officers have worked together to develop a system which balances the interests of residents, businesses and visitors and takes fully into account safety and environmental issues.

“All this has to be achieved within a context of continuously evolving development pressures. These errors were most regrettable and all concerned are working hard to prevent a recurrence.”

A new TRO with amended wording was written up in November.