Visitors in Virginia Water have been slapped with parking fines after using electric vehicle charging bays to park in, while the electric chargers have been out of use for “months”. Parking along Station Parade is free for up to two hours, and there are four charging bays for visitors to use. Enforcement hours are from 8am to 6pm, and it costs 40p per kilowatt hour to park in this spot.
The four on-street parking spots have been reportedly out of service, and are currently not showing on ZapMap – an online feature for electric vehicle drivers to find somewhere nearby to top up. Despite this, locals are still being slapped with parking fines for using these bays, which typically, drivers would be fined for parking in if their vehicle is not electric.
Ian Waldie, who regularly uses the on-street parking to visit Virginia Water for a coffee and dog walk with his family, was given a parking fine, which he appealed. Before parking, Ian noted that the charging point had a green bag wrapped around it, indicating that it was not in use.
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Frustratingly, Ian was still given a PCN and had also seen other people being given parking fines. Ian was relieved to have the fine revoked but has concerns other people might find themselves in the same situation. He said: “The other day I witnessed a parking officer handing out another ticket in these bays so I challenged him.
“He was using the same PCN14 and I asked how can you issue a ticket that says not charging when the charging point has a green bag wrapped over it and not yet working. I even showed him my email from last week saying my PCN for parking in this same spot had been cancelled and why.
“He phoned his supervisor who told him to issue the ticket as the car was not an electric car. I tried to explain that these aren’t extra bays for electric cars , to use them you have to be charging the vehicle and as you can’t charge you can’t issue the ticket.
“My concern is that the enforcement officers on the ground and their supervisors do not know the rules and with many other charging bays around Surrey that are not yet operational they are just driving around issuing unnecessary tickets. Surrey County Council should brief their contractors accordingly and have the signage around these bays covered up until in operation.”
A Surrey County Council spokesperson told SurreyLive: “The Station Parade charge points are not currently live as there is an issue with the electrical connection. As a result enforcement officers have been told not to enforce the bays until further notice.
“The PCN issued to Mr Waldie has been cancelled because it was issued in error. A team is on site working on fixing the issue.”
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