Islington Council has apologised after "technical issues" meant parking permit expiry reminders were not sent out on time – and residents found themselves facing fines.

Drivers told the Gazette they were shocked find tickets on their vehicles when they did not know their permit had expired.

Zahra Abbas said: “I took three tickets off my car last night – £80 each. They never sent me a reminder which they usually do."

Kimone Blake said: “I got about three tickets that weekend, plus the website wasn't working to even renew it.”

After being approached by the Gazette, the council posted a statement on its website: "We apologise that due to technical issues with our parking system, there have been significant delays to reminders for permit renewals being sent out. This has affected email and letter reminders for resident, business and Blue Badge permits."

It continues: “If you have not received an expected permit reminder and, as a consequence, have been issued with a penalty charge notice (PCN), please get in touch to appeal. We will view your first PCN sympathetically with a view to cancelling it.”

Some residents said they received the reminder weeks, or even months, after their permits expired.

Jude Louise said this week: “I got a ticket a few months ago because of this and today I received two letters, dated in the last week reminding me to renew my permit in July 2022 and October 2022. The July 22 permit reminder is a bit late.”

Karrie Zvorc said: “They did it to me back in April, didn’t remind and I got two tickets, and had the cheek to post the April reminder through my door today!”

Dozens more people took to the Islington Community Group on Facebook to complain about the issue.

In some cases, the resident got the fines cancelled after an appeal if the expiry was recent.

Alex Theo said: “They did this to me, but I contested it and made sure I was annoying as possible which resulted in them retracting the fine”.

The council statement said: “We are working on introducing a new parking system that will improve the permit application process and will include automated reminder emails when your permit is due to expire."