"Thousands of parking tickets issued by Hutt City Council may be invalid, and the money raked in by fines may have to be refunded.
The council has acknowledged there may be a problem, and its chief executive Tony Stallinger said "it's going to be a major inconvenience if that's the case".
A loophole in the council's bylaws has been uncovered by Al O'Connor, a legal researcher and master's student at Victoria University, who stumbled on the matter after he was ticketed for parking longer than two hours near his Seaview office.
"It's a newly created time-restricted area, and I took it on myself to check the lawfulness of it - and uncovered a massive problem."
Land transport regulations state that local authorities must pass a bylaw authorising the penalties for parking infringements.
Hutt City Council's bylaw provided for parking meters, coupon parking, resident parking and no-stopping areas, but it made no provision for time-restricted parking, he said..."
Yet ANOTHER example of petty 'officials' thinking they are a law unto themselves.
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