Cash-strapped Dundee City Council potentially missed out on thousands of pounds in car parking fees because of the clocks going back on Sunday.
A software glitch meant that anyone who used one of the city’s three pay-on-foot car parks, at Greenmarket, Olympia and Gellatly Street, was able to park for free.
Drivers only became aware of the fault when they tried to pay for their tickets.
Each car park has space for hundreds of vehicles.
With councillors grappling with mutli-million-pound cuts, the situation caused some raised eyebrows.
One Angus motorist said: “I was parked in Greenmarket multi-storey and when I went to pay with my ticket it rejected it as invalid.
“When I asked for assistance I was told a ‘glitch’ due to the clocks changing meant their computers were broken so they just let me go out for free.
“I am not sure if this situation was affecting Greenmarket only or all the council’s car parks that use the computer system.
“Given these times of austerity it is more than a little surprising that they would let so much money slip through their fingers.”
A spokesman for Dundee City Council confirmed that all three pay-on-foot car parks, where drivers pay for the time they have used upon their return to their vehicle, had been hit by the bug but said the issue had been fixed by Monday.
He said: “There was an issue with the software at the multi-storey car parks where there are pay-on-foot meters.
“It had something to do with the clocks going back and is being resolved.”
Gellatly Street was Dundee’s busiest car park in 2014/15 with 217,535 visitors, while Greenmarket was used by 140,915 motorists and the new Olympia car park by 70,333.
That works out at an average of nearly 1,200 people using the car parks each day.
Pay-on-foot car parks are regarded as better than pay-and-display systems as drivers do not have to leave by a certain time.
It is thought this flexibility means people will spend more time, and money, in the city centre.
Dundee City Council is to spend £150,000 converting Bell Street car park from a pay-and-display to pay-on-foot in a bid to make it more popular with drivers.