More questions are being asked about Liverpool City Council and complaints that a number of the city's Labour councillors used a 'back door route' to get parking fines rescinded by a council officer.
The ECHO has previously reported that it is understood several councillors from the ruling Labour group had parking tickets cancelled via a former officer at the council.
It is believed as many as 18 parking tickets received by city Labour councillors were wrongly cancelled by an officer who is no longer employed by the authority.
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Liberal Democrat leader, Cllr Richard Kemp said he understands that some senior officers and their friends had also 'used the same route' to get tickets cancelled.
Cllr Kemp said he became aware of the situation last year and put a complaint in to the council's standards board.
The Liverpool ECHO submitted a Freedom of Information request to Liverpool City Council in October, which asked for full details of any parking tickets that had been received by elected councillors and officers and then rescinded by officers since 2015.
For a long time no response was forthcoming, but after several months we told the council of our intention to publish this story, we did receive a response.
The council said our initial FOI would take too long to respond to.
We have since refined our request via another FOI, which asks only for the names and details of councillors who have had had parking tickets rescinded in the past five years.
The issue was again raised as part of a full council meeting this week.
Cllr Kemp placed a question which asked if it could be confirmed whether there are any special processes which councillors or council employees can follow to get parking fines cancelled.
The response from the council stated: "There are no special processes in place for either Officers and Councillors to appeal against a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN).
"The process/procedures for an individual to follow who wishes to appeal against the issue of a PCN is clearly set out in the ‘Traffic Management Act 2004’ and supporting Regulations. These regulations apply to all recipients of a PCN regardless if they are elected members or officers of the council."
Cllr Kemp said: "This response shows that there should never have been a system used by councillors or officers outside the normal appeals process.
"The council should now respond to the Liverpool Echo's latest Freedom of Information request in full."
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