Over 1,600 people paid a total of more than £5,500 for parking in Hereford on an afternoon when parking in the city was supposed to be free.

From noon onwards on Saturday February 8, no payment for parking was required at Herefordshire Council-owned car parks and on-street pay-and-display spaces in the city, including the Maylord Orchards and Old Market car parks, but excluding Friars Street car park.

The Love Hereford promotion was backed by Hereford BID (Business Improvement District), which together with the council’s own parking team had advertised the offer widely including on parking ticket machines.

Yet drivers still made 1,607 payments during the afternoon, both by card and cash at the machines and via the council’s newly introduced JustPark app, totalling £5,510.60 – an average of £3.43 a time.

The information emerged from a freedom of information request made by a local resident – who asked why the council hadn’t simply disabled the parking machines and app for the afternoon.

“I have evidence that the parking app was still operational and taking money from the public, and the meters in the car parks did not have signage so people paid,” the resident who asked to remain anonymous said.

“I want to know to what extent people paid and how much the council made in parking fees during the supposed free parking,” they added

The council responded: “The reason to not change the machines directly to not accept any money was for people parking outside the event parameters (before or after, or for longer, or for longer tickets).”

It also revealed that 1.86 million parking tickets, both physical and virtual, were issued at council car parks around the county during 2024.