diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 94a43ed..936c688 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/),
 and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).
 
-## [Unreleased](https://github.com/digirati-co-uk/tasks-api/compare/v1.1.2...main)
+## [Unreleased](https://github.com/digirati-co-uk/tasks-api/compare/v1.1.3...main)
 
 <!--
 ### Added
@@ -15,6 +15,12 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 ### Security
 -->
 
+## [v1.1.3](https://github.com/digirati-co-uk/tasks-api/compare/v1.1.2...v1.1.3)
+
+### Fixed
+- Fixed ascii characters in tokens
+- Fixed Postgres connection timeout
+
 ## [v1.1.2](https://github.com/digirati-co-uk/tasks-api/compare/v1.1.1...v1.1.2)
 
 ### Added
diff --git a/src/database/create-postgres-pool.ts b/src/database/create-postgres-pool.ts
index 14fb702..1da2484 100644
--- a/src/database/create-postgres-pool.ts
+++ b/src/database/create-postgres-pool.ts
@@ -5,6 +5,9 @@ export function createPostgresPool(config: DBConfig) {
   return createPool(
     typeof config === 'string'
       ? config
-      : `postgres://${config.username}:${config.password}@${config.host}:${config.port}/${config.database}`
+      : `postgres://${config.username}:${config.password}@${config.host}:${config.port}/${config.database}`,
+    {
+      connectionTimeout: 'DISABLE_TIMEOUT',
+    }
   );
 }
diff --git a/src/utility/parse-token.ts b/src/utility/parse-token.ts
index 36054e2..fd07c0b 100644
--- a/src/utility/parse-token.ts
+++ b/src/utility/parse-token.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { ApplicationState, JWTConfig, Scopes } from '../types';
+import { safeJsonParse } from './safe-json-parse';
 
 export function parseToken(
   rawToken: string,
@@ -13,7 +14,11 @@ export function parseToken(
 
   try {
     const payload = Buffer.from(base64Payload, 'base64');
-    const token = JSON.parse(payload.toString('ascii'));
+    const tokenResp = safeJsonParse(payload.toString('utf-8'));
+    if (tokenResp.error) {
+      throw new Error(`Invalid token JSON encoding`);
+    }
+    const token = tokenResp.result;
 
     if (!token || !token.sub || !token.scope || !token.iss) {
       return;
diff --git a/src/utility/safe-json-parse.ts b/src/utility/safe-json-parse.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5fd4ca9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/utility/safe-json-parse.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+export function safeJsonParse<T = any>(json: string): { result: T, error: false } | { error: true } {
+  try {
+    return { result: JSON.parse(json), error: false };
+  } catch (e) {
+    console.log('Error parsing JSON', e);
+    console.log(json);
+    return { error: true };
+  }
+}
diff --git a/tsconfig.json b/tsconfig.json
index 9efd8e7..af14a39 100644
--- a/tsconfig.json
+++ b/tsconfig.json
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
     "resolveJsonModule": true,
     "noImplicitAny": true,
     "downlevelIteration": true,
-    "noUnusedLocals": true,
+    "noUnusedLocals": false,
     "noFallthroughCasesInSwitch": true,
     "paths": {
       // "PACKAGE_NAME": ["../SERVICE_NAME"]