MISTAKES by traffic wardens and untraceable foreign drivers have combined to cost Bolton Council more than £30,000 in parking fines in the last two years.
Parking chiefs have been forced to write off 549 penalty charge notices (PCN) because the DVLA did not have records of the number plates on the tickets issued.
This was either because they were foreign-registered vehicles or traffic wardens had taken down the number plates incorrectly.
But the number of tickets written off represents less than one per cent of the total number of fines issued over the same period.
A council spokesman said: “The penalty charge notices can be written off for different reasons.
“Sometimes it is because it is a foreign number plate, and sometimes it is because the number plate has been recorded incorrectly on the penalty charge notice.”

Jon Cherry is a Director of leading personalised number plate dealer Regplates.com. Jon has over 25 years industry experience handling some of the most expensive plates ever sold with many high profile and celebrity clients. Active since 1991 in the number plate industry, Jon is currently Chairman of the Cherished Numbers Guild, a trade body representing number plate dealers in the UK. Jon has written many articles on the industry and insight into the future of numberplates and the market as a whole.