AN outraged motorist fears hundreds of drivers could be due refunds from Newcastle City Council, after winning his battle to have a parking fine overturned.

Rob Parker was given a ticket after wrongly leaving his car at the Morden Street car park in the city centre just after Christmas, one of the three sites in Newcastle reserved exclusively for NHS workers to park for free at the time.

But the 46-year-old complained that signage to warn motorists of the restriction was “appalling” and, having seen the local authority reject his appeals against the parking charge, he took the council to an independent tribunal and succeeded in having the ticket overturned.

But after discovering that almost 3,000 drivers were issued fines at the three car parks given to NHS workers from July 2020 to this May, the other two being Claremont Road and Leazes Park Road, the dad-of-two has urged city transport chiefs to give back their money – which could total tens of thousands of pounds.

The council said that the Traffic Penalty Tribunal’s (TPT) verdict in the Morden Street case does not set a legal precedent and that 800 parking tickets issued at the three NHS-only car parks in that time had already been successfully appealed.

Mr Parker, from Washington, likened the situation to the John Dobson Street scandal, in which the city council ultimately offered to pay back £2.5m worth of fines to drivers caught out by an infamous bus lane camera for which warning signs were “misleading and wrong”.

He added: “I’m glad my fine has been overturned, but I just think it is disgusting that the council won’t give back all the others.

“The council has been found to be lacking and yet they get to keep every penny of hundreds of other people’s money from these fines.

“It is like John Dobson Street all over again. I have a real bee in my bonnet about this whole thing.

“The council has admitted in this case that they were in the wrong, but ultimately they will keep everyone else’s money.”

Mr Parker, who works offshore, was issued a fine of up to £70, reduced to £35 if paid early, when he came into town to return a Christmas gift on December 29.

There were 10 non-NHS workers fined for failing to display a permit in Morden Street just on that one day, a number that the TPT adjudicator called “striking”.

In a report issued in May, Annie Hockaday said she was “not satisfied that the council provided adequate information about the significant change and suspension of the bay where he parked”.

Between July 28 last year and May 20, when the NHS-only restriction was lifted, there were a total of 2,862 parking charge notices (PCNs) issued at the three car parks.

However, that includes some issued at weekends when the car park was open to non-permit holders and could also apply to NHS staff who were entitled to be there but had illegally parked outside the bay or in a disabled spot, for example.

In total, 1,965 of those tickets have been paid and 800 have been cancelled – resulting in around £80,000 of income for the city council.

A civic centre spokesperson said: “As part of our response to the pandemic, Newcastle City Council acted swiftly to support our NHS colleagues by dedicating three car parks with free parking for NHS permit holders.

“Signage, which we firmly believe was adequate, was placed around the car parks to inform people of this change of use. Where enforcement staff were available, as many were deployed to support other vital council services such as food deliveries to the vulnerable, they would advise any motorist arriving at the car park on the change of permit use and direct them to alternative car parks.

“We fully accept the findings of the Tribunal for this particular case, but need to clearly re-iterate that each Tribunal finding is based on individual circumstances as to how and when someone parked – it is not a blanket decision for every PCN issued, nor does it set a legal precedent. This is a key point.

“Furthermore, we have fair and transparent processes in place on how anyone issued with a PCN can appeal and if their appeal is rejected, what next steps they can take such as the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, who will make an impartial and concluding decision based upon the fact presented. To demonstrate this point, we annually uphold around 25% of appeals to the council, with around 800 relating to these three car parks while restrictions were in place.”