A driver who took on his council over a sudden jump in parking prices has had his fine quashed.

Stuart Bower was handed a ticket by Brighton and Hove City Council after paying the wrong amount to park on the day charges went up.

Now he has had his fine overturned after the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, the body which rules on appeals against penalty tickets issued by councils, said the local authority was not permitted to increase the amount it charged for parking.

Council officials insisted they were not in the wrong, saying they simply blundered by not including a piece of evidence to support their case.

Mr Bower, from Upper Beeding, regularly leaves his car in Brighton and Hove to go to work.

He paid £1 expecting to be issued with a ticket for two hours’ parking in Albany Villas, Hove, on April 1.

However new tariffs that started that day meant his ticket was only valid for 30 minutes.

When he found a penalty notice on his car, Mr Bower appealed. He claimed the council had failed to provide adequate notices explaining the dramatic jump in charges.

This argument was dismissed but the tribunal ruled that under the Brighton and Hove Controlled Parking Zone (Area N) Consolidation Order 2001, the council was not legally entitled to charge more than 50p for a two-hour stay.

Mr Bower said thousands of motorists may have been overcharged since the order came into effect in 2001.

But the council insists it acted lawfully in changing its fees and would have won the case if a member of staff had not forgotten to send the new set of rules as part of its defence.

A spokeswoman said: “The notice of change of tariff was not included in the evidence bundle for this particular case, in error.

“In subsequent cases we have provided a copy of this document to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. The new tariffs for parking are legal citywide.”

Mr Bower said: “It would be worthwhile for anybody who has received a parking ticket to go to the adjudicator.”