Edinburgh offers COVID-19 parking refunds

Motorists paid around £100,000 for parking in Edinburgh while charges had been suspended because of pandemic.

City of Edinburgh Council suspended charging for on-street parking on 24 March in a move to support key workers. However, over the 13-week period until charges were reinstated on 22 June, some drivers were using the council’s smartphone app to pay fort parking.

Some £101,537.50 was spent via RingGo, even though the cashless service’s website, application and telephone service all provided clear messages to customers confirming that parking charges were not in place across Edinburgh. Also, signs on pay & display ticket machines across Edinburgh displayed messages saying parking gees were suspended.

Transport and environment convener, Cllr Lesley Macinnes, said: “During the suspension of parking charges the RingGo website, app and telephone service all provided clear messages to customers confirming that charges were not in place across Edinburgh. There were also similar messages on pay and display ticket machines and all of the Council’s customer contact and social media channels.

Any person who spent money paying for on-street parking in Edinburgh between March 24 and June 22 this year is entitled to get their money back.”

In order to claim a refund all motorists need to do is email the council’s parking services team.

Conservative Transport Convener Cllr Susan Webber said: “Only when asked about this has it become clear that over £100,000 has been ‘collected’ from parking revenues, despite charges being suspended until 22 June. I am unsure of whether this income was even known about, and if so, given payments were suspended, what other steps were taken to reinforce the suspension of services?

“My constituents who brought this issue to my attention did not see these ‘clear messages’ hosted on the RingGo platform. When I asked if the revenue was with RingGo or within the council, this was unknown. It is helpful to know where and how you can apply for a refund but with that I do have concerns that this will be a time consuming and costly exercise to administer. Either way I would hope the Convenor of Finance will be going through the accounts with a very fine-tooth comb given the vast financial challenges we face as a city.”