If you were one of the many people who paid for parking using their Green P app and still received parking tickets in Cabbagetown, Toronto, you may have the right to dispute it.
CityNews has uncovered a major confusion over the location numbers for the Green P car park on a stretch of Parliament Street between Carlton and Gerrard streets, thanks in part to viewer James Tupper who contacted Speakers Corner.
“It was a big mistake, I don’t know what they were thinking,” Tupper said.
He has been visiting a well-known establishment in Parliament for years and has used his Green P app to pay for parking.
“I’ve been parked here for at least 20 years using the same number, 5337. That’s the number it’s always been.”
But in May, he started receiving fines after using that number.
“At first I thought the parking officer wasn’t using his machine and then I noticed the sign had a new, different number.”
The posted parking location ID was changed to 5374 on some of the machines, so Tupper started using the new ID and saw a discrepancy.
“If you enter 5374, the app shows it’s for Front Street East, which is nowhere near this location,” he told CityNews. “I don’t know what they did here, but something’s not right.”
Even more confusing, some of the parking meters had both numbers posted: the new one and the old one that customers like Tupper had been using.
“So if someone comes now, they won’t know what number to put in. It’s very frustrating.”
Tupper called the City, the Toronto Parking Authority (TPA) and the Toronto Police Service to report the mix-up.
“And just crickets,” he said.
He contacted Speakers Corner and within an hour of us contacting the Toronto Parking Authority, a technician came to fix the error.
“You called and they came and took the stickers off,” Tupper said.
Our cameras were rolling as the technician began peeling off the location ID tags for 5374, leaving behind the original number 5337.
“The Toronto Parking Authority (TPA) inspected the location in question and confirmed a discrepancy between the signage and the Green P app,” a spokesperson told CityNews.
As for why the error occurred, TPA did not say, but apologized to anyone, like Tupper, who may have received tickets in error.
“If customers have any concerns about a PVN (Parking Violation Notice), they can visit Toronto.ca/aps To obtain further information, TPA operations staff periodically review and calibrate payment and signaling information, and work to resolve inconsistencies, if identified.”
Tupper is now in the process of disputing the fines he received, but is frustrated that his numerous calls to city staff have yielded no action.
““As soon as the media does something, the city does too,” he said. “Everyone, ordinary citizens like me, complain and nothing ever happens.”
He is still waiting to find out whether the fines he received will be forgiven.
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