Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Parking catch 22.
I have just received a letter by post reminding me that my parking permit will run out on 19/02/2018. A month too late.
I found out my permit had run out a couple of weeks ago when I got a parking ticket however I could not renew my ticket anyway because I had not received the reminder containing the current "applicant ID".
When I rang up to complain I was told via e mail that I had not been sent a reminder because I had paid for but not printed the previous years permit. The fact that I had displayed a printed permit for the whole year seems to make no difference.
I found that I could not renew my permit online until after I had paid for the parking ticket so I could not challenge it.
On top of that I have had to exhaust my supply of visitors parking permits.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Enough to drive you crazy! How about asking one of our councillors to take this up for you?
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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All the "customer" care of a careful but constantly hungry fox looking after the chicken coop.
We need a 'new deal' for parking, don't we?
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Fairer and MOAR expensive? From what I know of friends who drive locally there seems to be a charge of about £300 a year in various fines for misdemeanours.
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John, "various fines and misdemeanours" appears to lump together a wide range of actions which are all treated by the same penalty charge (= fine) regime. There also appears to be a pressure to treat the whole charging regime as a very welcome source of additional taxation which can be used to backfill cuts in council's budgets.
But local Council parking is not supposed to be a commercial business. It's supposed to break even. Nor run as a tacit tax. The Kober "pledge" not to raise council tax should not have been based on - other things - milking and exploiting the Penalty Charge system - often skewed in favour of people who don't live in Controlled Parking Zones.
Further - in my view at least - it should be run fairly as a service ; and with sensitivity as to how residents actually live their lives.
John, you can say MOAR or make other farmyard noises as many times as you wish. But if you want to move to a system of market pricing, by all means try to convince people to vote for it and for a change in the law which permits it to be levied.
It's worth though remembering what happened to former Barnet Councillor Brian Coleman who boasted that he "never knowingly undercharged".
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I'd really just rather we went back to the public streets not being available for some people to park their private goods on.
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Permalink Reply by Paul on
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Similar thing happened to me a few years back. They even had the car clamped - the clampers told me that this was not the first one they had clamped that day where people had not received their reminder letter.
I put in a complaint as their reminder letters they had sent out for years were "accepted practise" and they eventually, after a final stage complaint, agreed they were wrong and should have sent the reminder letters. They conceded that they were not sent because of a new computer system that was put in.
My advice to you is pay your fine, then complain, take it to final stage, and take it to the ombudsman- that'll learn 'em.
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Permalink Reply by maggie on
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I am not contesting that but I am contesting that I wasn't sent a reminder because I hadn't printed out the previous parking permit for the previous year, which I had; this then lead to a series of complications.
I could not renew my parking permit on-line until I had paid for a parking ticket incurred for not having the permit however even when I had done this I still could not pay for the permit on-line as it had been blocked because it was said that I had paid for, but not printed, the previous one. Perhaps I printed it in the wrong format, I really don't know, but I displayed it on the windscreen of my car for a year without incurring penalties so don't know why I was blocked from the renewal system which resulted in me not being sent a reminder and made re-accessing the system problematic. I should have made that clearer.
I am happy to pay my dues however I do not find the system user friendly. I am not criticising the people who work at the council either who were all very pleasant and helpful.
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It is my understanding that rent of a space in the cyclehoop bike hangers is offered by a 3rd party as a for profit business. Council could do the same for on road motor vehicle storage, where it is currently being offered at a substantial discount to the market rate, based on private car park rates in the borough.
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Also based on the cyclehoop prices. One bike costs £30 (which seems reasonable) and a hangar, which takes up a single parking space, holds six bikes. However, a parking permit is actually cheaper than the cost of one bike in the hangar, never mind six.
That aside, the thing I find really irritating about parking permits is the insistence that they are sent as signed for to your home address. If you work during the week then inevitably you end up with a trip to the post office depot to collect them or paying to redirect to the post office. Some flexibility to send them to an alternative address would be much better.
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