Elmbridge Parking Fine Refund: Check If You Are Owed Money Back

The short version

Elmbridge Borough Council has admitted that a procedural error meant it issued 9,318 Penalty Charge Notices incorrectly in its car parks between January 2020 and April 2026. It has apologised and opened a refund scheme.

Here is the part that matters: as at 4 August 2026, the council had received 794 applications and paid 671 refunds. That is against 9,318 fines issued in error.

So roughly eight and a half thousand people who paid a fine they did not owe have not claimed their money back. Most of them almost certainly do not know the scheme exists.

There is no application deadline published. If you parked in an Elmbridge car park at the wrong time of day since 2020 and paid a PCN, it is worth five minutes to check.

> This is not something we charge for. If your fine falls inside the windows below, there is nothing to appeal: the council has already accepted it should not have been issued and will simply pay you back. Go straight to Elmbridge and claim. We have written this page because the eligibility rules are fiddly and buried, not because there is anything to sell you.

Do you qualify? The exact windows

Eligibility depends on which car park, what time of day, and what date. Get one of the three wrong and you do not qualify. This is why so few people have claimed.

1. Fines issued 8am to 9am, or 6pm to 7pm

Applies to PCNs issued since 6 January 2020 in these car parks:

2. Fines issued 8am to 10am, or 6pm to 7pm

One car park has a wider morning window:

• Ashley Park, Walton-on-Thames, for PCNs issued since 6 January 2020.

If you were ticketed at Ashley Park between 9am and 10am, you still qualify. You would not qualify at that time anywhere else on the list.

3. Any fine issued on a Sunday

Applies to PCNs issued on any Sunday since 24 April 2022, across 17 car parks. That includes all of those listed above, plus:

• Heath North
• Heath South
• Mayfield Road
• Station Avenue
• Walton Park

The Sunday rule is the one most likely to catch people out, because it applies at any time of day, not just at the start and end of the charging period.

The three things people get wrong

"My fine was years ago, it will be too late." The scheme goes back to 6 January 2020 for the time-of-day cases and 24 April 2022 for Sundays. A fine from 2020 is as claimable as one from this year, and the council has published no deadline.

"I appealed and lost, so that is settled." It is not. The refund scheme is separate from the appeals process and does not depend on whether you challenged the PCN at the time. If your fine falls in a qualifying window, it was issued incorrectly regardless of what happened at appeal.

"I did not keep the paperwork." You need proof of payment, but that does not have to be the original notice. A bank or card statement line showing the payment to Elmbridge Borough Council is normally enough. Your vehicle registration is the key identifier.

How to claim

Applications go directly to the council. You will need:

1. Your name and contact details
2. Your vehicle registration number
3. Proof that you paid the fine (bank or card statement is usually fine)
4. Your bank details, so they can pay the refund in

Apply on the council's parking fine refund page, or call 01372 474 474 if you cannot apply online.

The council says it aims to pay successful claims within two weeks of receiving a valid application.

Why the fines were wrong

The council describes it as a procedural error affecting parking arrangements in the car parks concerned. It has not published a detailed technical explanation of what went wrong.

In practice, this class of error usually comes down to the Traffic Regulation Order, the legal instrument that sets out when charges apply in a car park. If the order does not actually authorise enforcement at a given time, any PCN issued at that time is invalid, no matter how clear the signs were or whether the driver had paid. That is the council's own position here: it has accepted the notices should not have been issued and is refunding them without argument.

It is worth saying plainly that Elmbridge found this, published it, apologised and set up a refund scheme. Not every authority does.

If your fine does not qualify

If your PCN falls outside these windows, this scheme will not help you, and claiming will just be refused. What you do next depends on where you are in the process:

• Still within the challenge window and you think the fine is wrong: see our guide to appealing a council parking fine.
• Already rejected and heading to the tribunal: the Traffic Penalty Tribunal is free and independent, and covers Surrey. Our tribunal guide covers how the process works, and what actually persuades an adjudicator.
• Being chased by a debt collector: that is a different problem with different deadlines. Start with our guide on what happens when a parking fine goes to debt collectors.

Other councils running refund schemes

Elmbridge is not alone. Two other refund schemes are open at the time of writing:

• Reading Borough Council is refunding around 6,100 PCNs issued incorrectly between 2013 and 2024, across five areas including the East Reading Red Route.
• West Northamptonshire Council introduced revised off-street charges on 1 April 2026 before completing the required consultation. Every PCN issued in a council-operated Northampton car park between 1 and 24 April 2026 is void and is being cancelled or refunded.

If you were fined in either area in those periods, check with the relevant council directly.

Sources

• Elmbridge Borough Council: we apologise for incorrectly issued parking fines and will refund customers
• Elmbridge Borough Council: parking fine refund
• Reading Borough Council: council apologises to motorists and urges them to claim refunds
• West Northamptonshire Council: parking charge refunds

Application figures quoted are the council's own, covering 3 June 2026 to 4 August 2026. Check the council's pages for the current position before relying on them.