An electric car owner said that he is outraged after receiving an ‘unjustified' Parking Charge Order at The Avenue car park in Bracknell.

The 51-year-old Windsor man, who does not wish to be named, was visiting the Bracknell car park on September 12 where he planned to use the electric charging bays on the ground floor. 

After connecting the charger to his car, he left for 10 minutes before returning to find a PCN ticket and the car disconnected from the charger.

This frustrated shopper spoke to the News where he explained that other shoppers had also had a similar experience at the designated charging bays.

He said: “Me and my wife have used this car park in the past very successfully over the last three years and there has never been a problem.

“The PCN alleges my vehicle was improperly parked and unplugged from the charger but I have photographic evidence that I connected it to the charger, so I don’t know how it was unplugged during the 10 minutes I was away.

“After getting in touch with the council and showing them evidence that my car was plugged in, I was confident that they would cancel the ticket but they doubled down saying that it needed to be plugged in when the parking attendant saw it.  Also on the PCN ticket, it says ‘incorrect vehicle in the bay’ when I clearly registered it on my device.

“We have also seen people on social media saying that they have also had problems with the same thing in the Lexicon parking when she came back to find her car unplugged.”

These circumstances have raised suspicions that misconduct and misuse of authority are being put into practice by parking attendants across Bracknell. This however was denied by the council. 

Damian James, assistant director, contract services, said: “Any motorist who gets a parking ticket or Penalty Charge Notice in one of the council’s car parks must follow the appropriate process to challenge it. This includes submitting relevant evidence in support of the appeal.

“Our parking team receives no incentive, financial or otherwise, to issue tickets. It is part of their role to issue tickets where parking rules and regulations have been clearly broken.   

“The vast majority of tickets issued in the past three months relate to people parking in disabled parking bays without a valid badge. Only 15 per cent of tickets in the Avenue car park relate to electric vehicle charging bays – we have only had appeal correspondence from one of those cases.  

“There is absolutely no evidence to support claims that our parking officers are in any way tampering with cars parked in charging bays and we refute that any such action would be encouraged or taken by the council, its employees or its contractors.”