Google Cloud outage disrupts Lancashire parking services

Fines on a windscreen <i>(Image: PA)</i>
Fines on a windscreen (Image: PA)
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A major Google Cloud outage has disrupted parking services across Lancashire.

Lancashire County Council confirmed its parking enforcement system has been affected by the Europe-wide outage, which impacted organisations across Europe.

It has meant some parking services are temporarily unavailable, including the ability to make payments for penalty charge notices (PCNs)

A spokesperson for Lancashire Highways said: "We are currently experiencing issues with our parking enforcement system due to a wider Google Cloud service outage affecting organisations across Europe.

"This means some of our parking services are temporarily unavailable, including the ability to make payments for Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs). If you are unable to make a payment, please try again later.

"Some services are beginning to be restored, although there may continue to be intermittent issues. We appreciate people’s patience in the meantime."

The outage was traced to a "power event" in Google's 'Europe-west2' region, believed to be London.

This caused widespread disruption to services relying on Google Cloud infrastructure, including banking and the courts.

By 3pm on Tuesday, Google said the issues had been largely resolved, and only a very small number of customers were still being affected.

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