TRANSPORT bosses have now refunded almost £700,000 to drivers who were fined for crossing Lendal Bridge during its trial closure.

City of York Council said just over 28,000 applications for refunds had been received so far, some of which involved individual drivers who had been fined more than once.

Just under 20,000 cheques, totalling £691,000, had been sent out so far, said a spokeswoman.

She said a total of about 56,000 PCNs (penalty charge notices) were issued and people had until December to apply for a refund.

The council closed the bridge to private traffic from 10.30am to 5pm every day from August 2013 until last April in a bid to reduce congestion and pollution, but the project was plagued by controversy and there was widespread criticism of the way it was handled.

The authority decided to offer refunds after a watchdog, the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, ruled that it had no power to fine car drivers for using either Lendal Bridge or Coppergate.

As reported yesterday, the council is still awaiting the result of an appeal against the Coppergate ruling but it withdrew its challenge to the aspect of the ruling that applied to Lendal Bridge last year.

Labour council leader Dafydd Williams said yesterday that his very first decision on becoming leader was to refund the Lendal Bridge fines.

"Since then, the council had gone to every effort to communicate this decision and the process people must follow should they be eligible, including writing to every individual affected," he said.

"We extended the initial period in which people can apply to the end of this calendar year, so I’m confident that everyone who wants their fine repaid will get it."

But Tory group leader Chris Steward said it was 'appalling the way that Labour has let this botch carry on," adding: "They should have refunded all fines as soon as it became obvious the scheme was illegal. The partial repayments continues the reputational damage."

Liberal Democrat leader Keith Aspden said the latest figures showed Labour’s 'botched' Lendal Bridge trial was due to cost taxpayers £1 million. "This is money which could and should have been spent tackling transport issues across York, but has been wasted by Labour on this scheme," he added.