THERE was chaos in Hampshire car parks when a widely used parking payment service collapsed for more than five hours.

RingGo Parking’s mobile app, website and phone number went down at 8.30am on Wednesday, leaving scores of rush hour commuters late for work and at risk of a fine in Romsey.

The company, which operates 10 car parks around the town, did not confirm the app had come back online until just after 1.30pm – but many drivers still reported that the app was not working.

It is not clear what caused the outages.

The popular app lets users pay for their parking on their phone once they have left their vehicle.

Many drivers complained that they had already left their cars and boarded secondary transport, such as trains, before realising the app wasn’t working.

Panicked drivers took to social media to voice their frustration.

Many also tried to seek assurance that they wouldn’t be fined for parking without paying in spaces managed by RingGo.

However, Test Valley Borough Council say that parking tickets should not have been wrongly issued.

“It was brought to our attention on Wednesday, that the RingGo car parking payment system was experiencing a national technical fault,” confirmed planning policy and transport portfolio holder, Councillor Martin Hatley.

“We have investigated the situation and believe that no parking Penalty Charge Notices were issued incorrectly.

“However, if anybody believes they have been issued with a notice incorrectly, we have an appeals process which considers each case on an individual basis.”

If you have received a parking ticket due to RingGo’s issue, and wish to make an appeal visit testvalley.gov.uk or call 01264 368000.