A DRIVER has criticised his local council after a parking ticket was written off because of an apparent legal loophole.

The Northern Echo revealed this week how two local councils, Stockton borough and Redcar and Cleveland borough, were taking legal advice over thousands of outstanding parking tickets that could be invalid.

Scores of councils nationwide have revised their procedures - and in some cases said they will cancel unpaid tickets - after a High Court judge ruled they must carry the date of issue and the date of the offence on them.

Motorist Phil Wilkie said he had already had a £30 ticket he received for parking on a single yellow line in Tennant Street, Stockton, in February, written off by the authority.

After arguing that the ticket was not valid because it only had one date, it was cancelled after an appeal to the National Parking Adjudication Service (NPAS).

Mr Wilkie, 26, of Vicarage Street, Stockton, said: "The council said they had taken advice and would not be pursuing the ticket any further due to the two-date issue.

"Everybody has a right to know what is happening here. I feel the council has attempted to get money off me ... by using a piece of paperwork that does not exist in law.

"They have got a big problem."

Hartlepool Borough Council, which changed the wording of its parking charge notices as a precaution in light of the High Court case involving Barnet Council, in London, said it would not write off tickets. It said any motorists who had received a ticket prior to the change in April would still have to pay.

A spokesman said: "It does not change the situation as far as we are concerned. We have taken legal advice and that is that the person has still contravened the parking regulations and must pay the penalty charge."

Neil Herron, a parking campaigner from Sunderland, said: "Hartlepool council needs to reconsider their legal advice.

"If a ticket is invalid, there is no financial liability that arises -that is what the judge said.

"You do not change a ticket which is legal to make it more legal. You change a ticket which is non-compliant to make it compliant."