Concerns have been raised that Cornwall Council could have lost out on thousands of pounds of car parking revenue due to ticket machines not working or being emptied.

A visitor to Porthcurno said he recently saw the car park packed with vehicles but not one of them had been able to pay as the ticket machines were not in operation.

David Bedford, a Cornishman who was returning as a visitor, said when he asked a local woman about the issue he was told that they had been out of action for months.

He said:

"Both of the payment machines at the car park were 'not in use'. A local lady, wearing a badge, advised me that this had been the case for some considerable time and that she had contacted the council on 'numerous occasions throughout the summer' but that despite this nothing had been done to rectify the situation.

"On return to the car park after some four hours later, I recall the normal fee would have been in the region of £5, I saw that there were upwards of 160 vehicles parked, none of which had paid a penny for the privilege of parking. For that one day, the council has lost at least £800 and probably well over £1,000 in revenue.

"I have contacted the council and to be fair I received a quick, but totally unsatisfactory, reply, which said that there were lots of visitors and the machines are getting full very quickly and that they were trying to resolve the situation with the 'money collection contractor'."

Mr Bedford added:

"I don't know exactly how long this situation has existed but from the lady I met it could well have been for several months. The maths are staggering if that is so…my estimate being c£30,000 a month in lost revenue.

"Surely someone at the council needs to have recognised the seriousness of this financial situation by now and have actually 'done something about it'?

"Times are difficult and surely that sort of lost revenue cannot be ignored simply because the machines are not being emptied regularly? This is income that could be well spent on care provision or other important issues."

The Local Democracy Reporting Service went to Cornwall Council and asked how long the Porthcurno car park machines had been out of service and whether there were other council owned car parks with similar issues.

We also asked how much in revenue the council had lost as a result of machines not working or not being emptied and when the Porthcurno machine issue might be resolved.

The council failed to answer the questions but issued a statement saying:

"The council is aware of the issue of parking machines becoming full and subsequently becoming out of order in some areas of Cornwall, and is working with its contractor to resolve these issues as quickly as possible.

"Car park users are advised to use pay-by-phone or pay-by-app services where available. However, we understand that some drivers may be unable to use this service and enforcement action will only be taken if payment machines were operational at the time of parking."