MOTORISTS who were charged for driving along Coppergate will now have their fines refunded.

City of York Council's Executive committee decided tonight that the scheme had wrongly banned people from driving on the city centre street during the day, and decided the more than 12,000 drivers who were issued a Penalty Charge notice totalling £387,350, now had the right to a refund.

Dozens of people attended the meeting, which also covered York's Local Plan, young peoples' services at Castlegate and older peoples' accommodation in the city, The meeting heard there were more than 12,000 motorists who were fined after driving in Coppergate after a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO), was put in place in August 2013, restricting traffic. An adjudicator later determined signage enforcing the Coppergate order was inappropriate, and the order was unenforceable.

A report before the council stated it would be lawful for the authority to retain the £387,350 it had collected in fines, but each of those fines could easily be revoked in an appeal, and fighting each individual case could cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. As it stands, the council will also stand to pay about £40,000 in administration fees to carry out the refunds.

The Executive agreed to write to every motorist who had received a fine and offer the refund, but also to look at how best to take the traffic regulation of Coppergate forward, with improved signage and liaising with the Department for Transport.

The decision marks the second time the council has had to admit defeat on a similar scheme, following the Lendal Bridge fiasco, which saw 56,000 fines handed out to motorists for crossing the bridge under an unlawful congestion-busting scheme, all of which are now eligible for refund by the same date.

Council leader Chris Steward said: "This is fundamentally about justice, giving people money back where something hadn't been right, and otherwise we would have individual appeals coming back one by one.

"It's fair to say people could appeal, but I do think it's reasonable for members of the public if they get fined by the council to think that the signs would be legal."

Councillor Andy D'Agorne said he supported better signage for the future, but was "incredulous" that £150,000 could be used for administration to repay both the Lendal Bridge and Coppergate fines, but a proposal for the same amount for a congestion commission to look at improving traffic flow in the city had been dismissed.

He said: "Unlike Lendal Bridge, this is something that's been there for donkey's years so anyone local would have known from the outset that they shouldn't have been there at that time.

"Personally, I feel that given what's been said about the legality of those penalty charges we shouldn't be giving in to lawyers and setting up a whole scheme to refund yet more money. If someone appeals against that, I don't have a problem."

The Coppergate decision can still be called in by councillors who wish to look at the recommendation more closely, but if that does not happen, a process to arrange the settlement of claims should be set up within weeks, and an estimated deadline for submitting a refund claim will be the end of March next year.

If the decision is not called in by councillors, more information on refunds will be available at york.gov.uk/coppergate

In other news, the Executive recommended continuing services for young people at Castlegate, at least until April 2016, following on from concerns about the movement of the services to another site.

The meeting heard a fuller recommendation, including financing of improvements to the building and a remodelled but sustainable model for the services provided, will be brought before the Executive meeting in September.

The Executive also approved a report on the progress of the Local Plan, and approved recommendation for a ballot in November to allow city centre businesses to decide whether they want to form a Business Improvement District for York.