The 48 parking tickets issued to Isle of Wight festival goers who parked on verges during the traffic mayhem on Thursday will be revoked.
Hampshire Constabulary had told officers not to fine drivers.
Sgt Dave Steele, of Hampshire Constabulary, told the BBC that the mix up had ‘been a result of a dual radio band system used by police during the festival.’
The BBC report continued, ‘Those inside the festival ground were using a different frequency to those working outside so not all officers heard the instructions.’
Two tickets will remain in force.
After we published the story, we received this statement in form the Police, in their words.
Parking tickets at the Isle of Wight Festival
Hampshire Constabulary can confirm that fixed penalty notices were issued to some motorists parking around the Isle of Wight Festival site
Only vehicles which were parked dangerously or causing an obstruction to the pavement, junctions or access routes were ticketed. These measures were taken to ensure the safety of pedestrians and other road users.
Sergeant Dave Steele from Hampshire Constabulary’s Event Planning Team said: “Motorists started to park along verges in the Fairlee Road area over the festival weekend, contravening traffic restrictions for the event.
“An official instruction had been broadcast to officers over a police radio channel not to ticket those vehicles, unless there were any issues with obstruction of the highway.
“We had two separate police radio channels over the weekend; one for the festival and one for local policing across the rest of the Isle of Wight.
“Two officers issued tickets to 50 vehicles parked in the area. These actions were lawful, but the officers had not been aware of the radio instruction.
“A senior officer and I reviewed and removed 48 of those tickets. Two were left because those vehicles were causing an obstruction to the highway. From our point of view, it was a common sense thing to do.
“We stand by the integrity of the decision made originally. It was important that parked cars did not obstruct the highway as they can cause a hazard to other road users, and jeopardise the progress of plans to ensure the safe exit of pedestrians and motorists from the festival site.
“The police have learned lessons about joining up key messages on those radio channels, and we apologise for any inconvenience.”
Image: davidcjones under a CC BY 2.0 license
