Brent Council has sent engineers to fix old ticket machines following revelations of a technical fault which causes machines to display the incorrect time.

The council sent repair teams following tip-offs by inquisitive borough residents who reported that some parking machines were running a couple of minutes fast, particularly within the Brondesbury Park ward.

David Thrale, Head of Safer Streets, said that the “vast majority” of ticket machines are linked to the Atomic clock and are always accurate.

He added: “A small number of older machines are not, are regularly checked and any drift in time is manually corrected.

“We have sent an engineer to reset these machines straightaway.”

Council chefs assured residents that it is unlikely the fault has resulted in unwarranted tickets.

Mr Thrale continued: “Most parking offences have a grace period which is usually longer than any drift in clock accuracy, so we do not believe that any driver will have received an invalid Penalty Charge Notice (PCN).”

“However, If anyone is concerned about their PCN, we encourage them to use the appeals process.”