Croydon: Penalty charge notice error cost borough £150,000

Cancelling penalty charge notices (PCNs) for up to 3,100 people due to a printing error has cost Croydon Council £150,000, the authority says.

Last month, about 50 residents contacted BBC London saying they had been overcharged fines of up to £195.

This was because they never received initial PCNs stating they could pay a discounted rate or lodge an appeal.

The council apologised and said the problem affected 3,138 PCNs issued between mid-October and mid-December.

It said affected PCNs would be "cancelled" and refunds issued "to those who have already paid".

Councillor Jason Cummings said on Tuesday the council was able to "absorb" the cost.

However, he said he "wouldn't describe Croydon as being able to afford to lose a pound".

Speaking to BBC Radio London, Mr Cummings, the council's cabinet member for finance, said the error had been caused by a "conflict in the software that prints out the letters" sent to residents but he was "confident" the issue had now been resolved.

He said the error with PCNs was "unfortunate".

The cash-strapped council has been struggling financially in recent years, after becoming the first London borough in two decades to effectively go "bankrupt" back in 2020. It went on to it declare bankruptcy for a third time in November 2022.

Asked if Croydon could therefore afford the cost of compensating residents for this latest PCN error, Mr Cummings said: "I wouldn't describe Croydon as being able to afford to lose a pound, let alone £150,000, but councils are big organisations.

"We have contingencies in place for when things go wrong and, although £150,000 is a lot of money, it's not going to have any impact on our residents in terms of the over £300m budget that we operate each year," he added.

Residents in the south London borough saw a big hike in their council tax bills last year, after the government gave Croydon permission to raise council tax by 15%.

Mr Cummings said that this year the borough, which is under no overall control but has a Conservative directly elected mayor, only planned to raise council tax by the usual 4.99% in April and he said it was "predicting a balanced budget".

Council budgets across London are due to be set in the next few weeks.

People who believe they may have been affected by the PCN error in Croydon, including those who have already paid a charge, are being asked to get in touch with the authority.

The council said people could do this by emailing [email protected], or by phoning 0208 726 6000 (select option 1, and dial extension 44056), between 09:00 and 16:00, Monday to Friday."

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