HALTON Council has been found to have acted wrongly in the way it deals with appeals over bridge fines, with an independent tribunal also accusing it of ‘ignoring’ a previous similar judgement.

The Traffic Penalty Tribunal (TPT) recently found in favour of Widnes driver Damian Curzon, who had appealed against 11 fines. The tribunal said the council was wrong to have delegated handling appeals from drivers over the issuing of penalty charge notices (PCNs) to its contractor Emovis.

It said doing so was a ‘procedural impropriety’ which was grounds for appealing the cancellation of a PCN. But the decision does not affect the requirement for users of the Mersey Gateway and Silver Jubilee bridges to pay in the normal way, it said.

Mr Curzon had won a previous appeal in March 2019, but in issuing its latest judgement, the TPT accused the council of ‘ignoring’ that decision.

It said: “The adjudicator’s 2019 decision was upheld on a review application by HBC, but the council has stated the findings only related to the specific case in question and did not have general effect or set precedent for other cases. HBC has continued to contest every appeal relating to the findings of the 2019 decision.

“In this January 2022 decision, the adjudicator stated that HBC was wrong to ignore the adjudicator’s decision in the 2019 case.

“If HBC does not agree with the adjudicator’s decision and findings of that case, it should challenge the decision in the High Court.”

A spokesperson for Halton Borough Council said: “We are disappointed with the decision of the Traffic Penalty Tribunal adjudicator.

“We believe the decision is incorrect and will be contesting it.

“Our message remains the same - there is a legal requirement to pay to use the Mersey Gateway Bridge, so please do so and pay on time.”