THE legality of a council's parking fine tickets is being checked after a solicitor spotted vital missing words.

Simon Catterall pointed out the error to Darlington Council and had his £30 fine waived - now the question is how many other motorists may be due their money back.

Mr Catterall, public relations officer for the Tees Valley Law Society, parked in Northumberland Street, Darlington, to collect some documents before driving on to Stockton where he is based.

He had not realised the street was covered by the council's new on street parking meters and, although only a few moments, emerged to find a parking ticket on his car.

"You've got to have some kind of parking restriction in the town otherwise there would be gridlock," he said, " I would have paid up if it was a fair cop.".

"But I wasn't very happy about it and decided to investigate its authenticity with something of the zeal with which it obviously had been issued."

He noticed the ticket was missing some vital wording which the council has since accepted.

A letter from council engineer Brenda Bowles stated: "The excess charge ticket does not have to specify that it is generated by the Darlington Borough Council (Short Stay on Street Parking Places) Order 2004, but it should state that it is an offence under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 for the driver to fail to pay the excess charge.

"On investigating the photocopy of your excess ticket which you attached to your letter, it does not appear that this statement had been typed on this ticket. I am, therefore, on this occasion prepared, without prejudice, to waive the excess charge."

The D&S Times contacted the council to see how many other penalty notices may have also been issued without the vital wording since meters were introduced almost six months ago.

Yesterday a spokesman could only say "We are aware of the query and the legal team is looking at it."

Earlier this week the council announced it had received £112,000 since the meters were introduced - it did not say how much it had collected in fines during that time.