Disabled motorists, window cleaners and 999 workers are among thousands of people to have been wrongly issued parking tickets.

Brighton and Hove City Council has confirmed nearly 17,500 fines were dished out but later cancelled in the last financial year.

The amount, which works out at 48 a day, accounts for about 16% of the 109,000 tickets issued by the council’s 74 civil enforcement officers Council bosses said it showed they were acting fairly when dealing with appeals.

Of the 17,448 cancelled penalty notices issued, more than 4,000 had a valid pay and display tickets.

A further 1,000 had a visitor permit and 665 a disabled badge.

More than 1,000 were issued to vehicles that drove away and 665 to cars with valid disabled badges.

A further 1,765 were issued to vehicles that were unloading, 465 to broken down cars while about 80 were dropping off people.

Window cleaners (40), emergency vehicles (33) and stolen vehicles (99) were among those exempt groups to have also been slapped with notices.

Clerical errors were also to blame with more than 400 issued wrongly by wardens, 90 not having enough evidence and 100 not processed properly due to “back office” mistakes.

A council spokeswoman said: “The appeals process exists so that the council can take all information into account when deciding whether a penalty charge notice is payable.

“We are always looking for ways to reduce cancellations.”