A “PROCEDURAL gap” has been blamed for a Waverley Council error that left 91 of its fleet vehicles unregistered last week.

The council’s spokesman confirmed the registration on 69 cars, including the mayor’s, 14 trailers and 8 “special vehicles” expired on Friday, January 2.

Most of these were not renewed until the following Tuesday or Wednesday, with two vehicles still awaiting final checks.

Many of the vehicles appeared to have been on the road during the period they were without registration.

media_camera Waverley Mayor Sally Betts’ vehicle was affected by the mistake. Picture: John Appleyard

“As soon as staff were notified they stopped using the vehicle until the registration was renewed,” the spokesman said.

The oversight, which appears to be a result of human error, left the council open to serious public liability issues and police fines.

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“There was a procedural gap during the Christmas break in renewing the registrations,” the spokesman said. “It was not a systems error and it will not happen again.”

Last June, 25 Waverley Council staff lost their jobs in a restructure spearheaded by new general manager Arthur Kyron.

media_camera Waverley Council general manager Arthur Kyron. Picture: Danny Aarons

The council’s popular and long-serving fleet manager Peter Aston was one of the people left jobless.

When informed of the expired registration mistake by the Wentworth Courier, Labor councillor Ingrid Strewe said Mr Aston had done “an excellent job” taking care of the council’s fleet in the past.

“I think he may chuckle to himself at this,” she said. “Certainly people were shocked when he left.”

Mayor Sally Betts said her own vehicle had been affected but the mistake had been picked up “quite early”.

“We’ve thankfully managed to avert anything terrible … (The problem) will never happen again.”