Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Parking Over Christmas- Don't Forget
Having just had a visitor get a ticket while I was trying to work out whether parking was enforced or not today....
See here for enformcement over the holidays.
http://www.haringey.gov.uk/index/environment_and_transport/parking/...
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Justin, if literally, this was during the time you were trying to check the restrictions today, then please persuade your friend to write a joint representation with you to the Parking Service explaining what happened.
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The Parking regime in many local authorities has lost its way and become principally a (possibly unlawful) tax.
Every abuse; every capricious decision; every unfair and insensitive rejection of a representation against these parking fines further corrodes the remaining trust between residents and "their" council and councillors.
My council colleagues who take these issues seriously, usually rationalise away damage to public confidence by referring to the technical "offences committed" by drivers. And by the good uses to which we put the huge profits made on the parking account. (True enough but irrelevant.)
There are a lot of decent hard working staff who try to ameliorate this - whether in the Parking Service or Customer Services. I suspect many of them are as unhappy at the pressure that income targets put them under, as we are at having to pay, pay, pay. (I wonder if, in some ways, the system has begun to resemble the way staff were pressured to mis-sell Payment Protection Insurance.)
Please, if you get a PCN which is unfair, take the time and trouble to make a representation. (And consider an appeal,) Please, parking staff: blow the whistle on unfair practice. Anonymously if you need to.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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I read something Liz tweeted last night that was explaining the history of the Police in England. Apparently they started to blow their relationship with the middle classes when they had to enforce traffic laws in the 50s and basically made an enemy of most drivers in Britain. I wonder what the council would think of their position given that this is now primarily their job?
Not that I am a fan of your position Alan, a few random tickets here and there to stop people driving is what it will take. Next step a congestion zone for the people who don't actually stop in Haringey.
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I think it might have been Ray Bradbury who wrote a short story about over population being tackled by a random cull of cars and their passengers.
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
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It was quite literally Alan. In fact-in order to clarify the situation, I was trying to find a thread on the topic on HoL from last year, and ultimately remembered I had had something from the Parking folks some time back that lead me to the link above...
Thanks for your advice above. I do not think the Parking Officer was being especially difficult or malicious, he was simply right place right time (as far as he was concerned), though I have my doubts about whether he truely stood there for 6 minutes (as is stated on the ticket) 'observing'. Seems a bit tight to be issuing tickets on a day like today. Hey, ho!
By the way, your use of the word 'targets' is intersting. I thought there was a discussion some time back where a council oficial denied any link between Parking officers, PCNs and targets? Are there 'targets' in the parking side of things? (I know, another topic.)
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Permalink Reply by Karen Alexander on
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I absolutely agree with Alan and often the issuing of tickets where people are genuinely trying to sort out a vistor permit (its happened to us) is a bit mean. Do appeal - often common sense reigns - and do give me a shout if it doesn't (I can't guarantee anything but I'll give it a go if they have been unfair).
As confirmed by Cllr Canver, resident bays are restricted as normal except Sunday and bank holidays.
Pay and display bays are free today. They will continue to be free on bank holidays. Therefore, pay and display bays will be free of charge until Thursday 27 December.Pls remember, even if p&d is free of charge, parking on double yellow lines, zig zag and foot way parking will continue to be enforced.Hope that helps
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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and foot way parking will continue to be enforced.
But if footway parking is your thing, come west to Wightman Road and be our guest (sorry, Justin
). We have acres of dilapidated footway always waiting to be parked upon in the sole interest of further dilapidation - especially the western stretch from just north of Karen to just south of OAE. Ours is the neglected Empty Quarter which Brian Haley & his Highwaymen/ engineers passed over with disdain when the rest of WR was getting tarmacked and Gina was getting paved all over, Cleopatra style. In your and your visitors' bid to make the Green Lanes mercantile class prosperous, come and park on Wightman. I'll flog you some of my OAEP visitors' permits at normal Payday Loan markup rates. (Shh! not a word to my neighbour, Cllr C.) And the walk down and up the rungs with your loot will do you a world of good.
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Councillor Adamou seems to agree with Alan and Karen, see here.
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To be fair to Cllr Gina Adamou, in 2006 she actually did us all a service with this successful appeal against the PCN. It was cited as a Key Case by the Parking and Traffic Appeals Service (PATAS).
And for very good reasons. Haringey had fined her (okay, it's techically a "penalty charge") for stopping in a yellow box at a road junction on Green Lanes. But not only did Haringey Parking Service fail to specify which junction, when she asked they referred to a junction which didn't have a yellow box. The photo eventually provided also showed a wrongly painted yellow box.
Short of the entire Parking Service shouting "Oh, yes, you did!" and "It's behind you!" it's hard to imagine a sillier traffic ticket. (Though I did unsuccessfully attempt to persuade Dr Ita O'Donovan - a former Haringey Chief Executive - that her comments about our Tottenham Hale CPZ were comical gobbledegook.)
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Justin, let's see what response you and your visitor get to a representation/explanation. If it doesn't work, Karen is standing by.
It seems to me there must be a couple of minutes leeway even when it's just a caller turning up and you need to quickly lay your hand on a Visitor's Permit. Checking the Christmas rules is going to take a bit longer.
And we all forget routine tasks. (As in Armstrong & Miller's Putting out the bins jokes.) That's the PCN I find most irritating. When friends come, you have a great time, they stay over on a Sunday night. And then you forget to put the Visitor's Permit Out.
About "targets". While we're assured there are no numerical targets for issue of PCNs, it seems fairly clear there's an overall budgeted "expectation" of the Parking Service's surplus. This may not technically be a "target", but I can't see how it would fail to be a constant pressure; colouring and influencing the decisions taken.
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P.S. I looked this up. Under the heading "Budget Monitoring" the minutes of the Housing & Environment Scrutiny Panel on 24 September 2012 show that:
"An income of £5.8m was forecast for parking fees and charges against an expected total of £6.0m (£200k shortfall)"
So the parking tax collection business is good but not quite as good as expected.
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