More than 13,000 Brisbane residents successfully overturned at least $850,000 in Brisbane City Council-issued parking fines in 2017-18.
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Officer error and faulty meters were in the top five reasons for a parking fines being cancelled, along with meters paid but with incorrect registration or meter, resident parking permits not being displayed and compassionate or reasonable doubt grounds.
Opposition councillor Jared Cassidy said it was concerning 13,106 fines had been issued that shouldn’t have been.
“Where we’re seeing faulty metres out in the streets council is in the wrong, but we’re still collecting money off people,” he said.
“People shouldn’t have to go through the rigmarole of appealing a fine.”
Parking fines issued by the council range from $65 for parking in an official traffic area longer than permitted to $261 for stopping on a clearway or a parking area in a disabled spot without displaying a current permit.
The council's website stated the most common parking offences as parking meter and paid parking offences, parking for longer than indicated by a parking sign and parking in an official traffic area longer than permitted – all of which attract a $97 fine.
Other common fines, which would cost the driver $130, were stopping on a yellow line and stopping in a no-stopping zone.
Cr Cassidy said parking meters were digital and a high-tech system so council officers should be able to pinpoint in real time faulty meters and immediately go and fix them.
“They are putting the onus back on the public rather than on the council itself, which is wrong, which is more evidence council officers are out to raise revenue through parking fines.”
The council revealed the number of reasons for cancelled fines in 2017-18 following a question on notice submitted by opposition councillor Steve Griffiths.
Lord mayor Graham Quirk said while human error was the cause of fines being overturned everybody made mistakes.
"What we can do in that circumstance is to correct those errors if a mistake has been made and we do that as effectively as we possibly can," he said.
"We also have to look at the other side of the equation. We get 70,000 calls a year for people asking us to undertake parking enforcement."
The council did not respond to a request for how many fines were appealed within each of the top five reasons.
An East Brisbane man was fined $126 for parking across a driveway he claimed was blocked by a tree in January.
After appealing the fine it was withdrawn in February.
