Harrogate council warns motorists to ignore fake 'free parking' signs

A sign placed on a Harrogate ticket machine - image by Vicky Carr

Residents took to Twitter on Thursday, June 30, to post pictures of the out of order parking machines with black bin bags tied around them.

However, a hand-written sign on a piece of A4 white paper had been taped across the bin bag informing motorists that parking was now free-of-charge.

The sign read: "Dear, Public. This malfunction is clearly our problem, not yours. Today's parking is on us. Love + kisses, HBC xxx."

Excited motorists tweeted Harrogate Borough Council to ask them if their 'sweet' offer was indeed true.

However, the council insisted that the sign had not been placed by themselves and that, sadly, the pay and display rules would still apply.

North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) explained it is currently in the process of installing new ticket machines across the town centre and covering up decommissioned ones.

An NYCC spokesperson said: "We are upgrading the parking metres and putting new ones up. As we're doing that we're covering the old ones up so people don't feed money into them."

Such a shame.