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Jammed: the parking machine which ate Mrs Nyman's £4

A driver has been told she faces a six week wait to be refunded just £4 after a faulty ticket machine in a Borehamwood car park left her short-changed.

Janine Nyman had visited The Venue, in Elstree Way, on consecutive Saturdays while her daughter attended a swimming event.

On March 15, the final day of the four-week programme, Mrs Nyman put £4 into a machine in order to purchase a one-day parking ticket, but the coins became jammed and the machine failed to issue a ticket or return her money.

She called a helpline number displayed on the machine, which is operated by Hertsmere Borough Council, but was left fuming after being told it may take up to six weeks for her money to be refunded.

She will also be forced to hand over her bank details to the authority.

Mrs Nyman, of Harrow, said: "I know it is a paltry £4 but it is the principle of the matter.

"I can't believe it takes this long. There must be a better system put in place to deal with this sort of thing.

"It is just a big bureaucratic machine which seems totally unnecessary.

"It was not the only machine out of order in the car park, which makes me think the council are not maintaining them well enough.

"How many other people have lost money this way?"

She added: "With all the problems of data going missing from the Government, I am not happy to give my information to the council.

"Why can't they just send me a cheque? I was dealt with in an extremely rude manner and given a lot of excuses when all I want is to get my money back."

A council spokeswoman said: "A security company collects the money from the machines. It then gets counted, banked and audit sheets are sent to us a couple of weeks later.

"We will process Mrs Nyman's payment as soon as we can.

"Because of efficiency savings cheques are being phased out. We can only offer Mrs Nyman our assurance that we have a sound track record and have never had an issue with a data breach and would keep all details secure.

"As well as putting refunds straight into people's bank accounts there is the option of giving regular users of the car park a parking pass of the same value as the overpayment."

8:07am Thursday 27th March 2008

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