{"id":1055179,"date":"2026-06-28T08:38:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T08:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1055179\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T08:38:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T08:38:27","slug":"thousands-of-northern-ireland-parking-fines-cancelled-over-app-payment-errors-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1055179\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of Northern Ireland parking fines cancelled over app payment errors \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 4,000 parking fines<\/a> handed out over the past three years to drivers in Northern Ireland<\/a> have had to be rescinded due to users putting in the wrong details when paying by app. <\/p>\n

The figures come as the Department for Infrastructure (DfI)<\/a> announced earlier this month that it would be upgrading its cash pay-and-display machines \u2013 but cutting the number of machines available for cash payments by almost a half, from 279 to 150.<\/p>\n

Released to The Irish News in response to a Freedom of Information request, the department said that it receives \u201cover 20,000 challenges\u201d to Parking Charge Notices (PCNs) each year and that \u201ceach case is often unique\u201d.<\/p>\n

Read more: <\/b>Scale of disabled parking fines revealed as charity warns spaces \u2018vital\u2019 for blue badge holders<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Noah<\/a>\"Man<\/a><\/p>\n

However, 4,051 fines which were handed out to drivers who had paid for parking via the JustPark app between May 2023 and May 2026 were ultimately cancelled.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere evidence confirms that a valid parking session was active at the time of issue, the PCN may be cancelled,\u201d the department said in its response.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese cases are typically due to minor user input inaccuracies, such as selecting the incorrect location or entering an incorrect vehicle registration mark.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere cancellation is appropriate, this is granted strictly on a one-off \u2018waive and warn\u2019 basis, and the motorist is advised that any future occurrences may not be treated in the same manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

They added that where a fine is believed to have been issued incorrectly, recipients are advised to challenge the PCN before making any payment. <\/p>\n

A DfI spokesperson said that over 1.3 million online parking transactions are processed annually, with the \u201cmajority of customers\u201d having no issues with the system. <\/p>\n

They added that given the high volume of transactions, \u201chuman error in a small percentage of cases is to be expected\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs the roll-out of the new pay and display machines progresses the Department and our service provider will be issuing further communications to the public to help them understand the changes,\u201d they added. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile 72% of parking revenue is already generated online, it is important to note that cash payments will remain available for all customers if they prefer.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 4,000 parking fines handed out over the past three years to drivers in Northern Ireland have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1055180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[92995,1227,1144,2975,16,15],"class_list":["post-1055179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-dfi","tag-fines","tag-northern-ireland","tag-parking","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116826834801911093","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1055179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1055180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1055179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1055179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1055179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}