Newcastle City Council over payment on parking ticket machines

thechecker

So  I parked in a Newcastle City council car park on Tuesday 7th Feb 23 
You can only pay now by app or by tapping your debit card no longer takes cash 
you then tap out when you leave 

Your parking charge is confirmed on leaving in my case £8.12 
upon checking my bank account I find I have been charged £17.89 
the council policy is to charge every person the full daily charge from the time of entering up to the end of the day charging period and then refund the difference within 5 working days

Considering how many parking spaces the council controls over the city and the number of times these spaces will be reused daily 
the council must be holding ££££££££ of people's cash  

If someone was to park for a couple of hrs each day for a week 
the council could be holding over £100 a week in theses extra charges 

chapea

I’ve had this a few times they started this I think last summer. None of the larger payments have actually debited my account they just stay as pending for a few days the correct smaller payment normally debits within 2 days. 

So hopefully this shouldn’t actually debit your account but I agree it’s not good we go first thing so the full day always shows as pending which is alright for some people but not everyone may have that amount spare to be ringfenced especially anyone going regularly. They need to go back to having the option of just paying for how long you’ve actually stayed.