Parking permits! (again)

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Permalink Reply by NedC on January 14, 2012 at 13:54

Have just received permits I ordered online on 25th November but that was only after I called the parking office. When I gave them the receipt details they couldn't find any trace of the order at their end but did acknowledge the payment. Strangely the amount taken off the card didn't correspond with any combination of permits I could have ordered, even had I been able to order more than one type. They were very diligent and courteous as they sorted it out and the permits arrived the next day.

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Permalink Reply by GillianM on January 14, 2012 at 18:17

Oh dear! Sounds like all is going smoothly with the new "system" then. Better give them a call on Monday.... Thanks Ned.

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Permalink Reply by Sam R on January 15, 2012 at 16:41

If the council cannot turn an application around in thr ten days as they promise, compensation should be paid.
We pay a fortune to this useless council but are treated like scum.
I am so sick of hearing about people's plights time and time again and yet there is nothing we can do about it!!!!!!!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on January 15, 2012 at 17:47

 

I renewed my annual permit online immediately after I got the letter telling me it was due in November. More fool me. For whatever reason I missed the bit at the end telling me to print out my permit. Realising something was amiss I went to the parking guys via email and not only told them several things I thought were wrong or poorly designed but asked them what to do about the permit.

Someone got back to me and told me they would email it to me. Sadly the guy never did and I also forgot about it until in December I found a ticket on my windscreen. You can imagine my joy, and panic given the impending Christmas period. I emailed the guy who had not send the permit he said he would originally (no response, I do not know if he was not in or just did not respond), I called (got a voicemail message, no one called back), I emailed the generic group email for the parking team (I got no response) and appealed the ticket (to which I believe the response I did get came from this route a day or two later- all taking up a couple of hours of effort. In the mean time stuck a notice in my windscreen saying please don’t bother giving me another ticket as I was dealing with the situation etc. Of course some trigger happy muppet trying to get his numbers up gave another bl**dy ticket! More stress to deal with.

Someone did come back to me and was very efficient in cancelling the tickets (well done you), and I got the permit eventually (after Christmas), so all was well, but a lot of stress and valuable time wasted.

I should add, I also had problems getting visitor permits online recently too. On both occasions I have recently had to try to interact with the online ticket/ permitting systems I have had problems and I tried to offer constructive feedback, even going as far as suggesting I would be happy to beta test web sites like this in future to make them more user proof. (I used to do this in a previously life, trying to make things more user friendly).

God knows why these things are not designed properly in the first place. For example. Why does it rely on us having to hit a print button that can be missed, why has this task not been made a distinct part of the next-step like process before the user is allowed to finish the process. Or, why is the permit not emailed to you (the receipt for the payment is)… Honestly, in these tight times I would have thought we should be working such ridiculous inefficiency out of these systems, but we seem to be only making it worse by introducing more and more bureaucracy- a make work exercise. On both occasions I have had stress and had to interact with people who have had to spend time on my issues that should be better spent on other things!

The difficulty is things don’t always work, and for most people life is too short, and they never bother challenging these things, and so the gross inefficiency that is designed in is left to fester and a sub-standard service is what is left.

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on January 15, 2012 at 18:03

Justin I know these hiccups must seem frustrating, but do remember that a proportion of each ticket sold goes to support the Borough's Journal of Record, Haringey People magazine (delivered free to every single household).

With that knowledge, I think I know how much better that makes you feel (its all in a good cause!).

With luck, you can read in Haringey People just how well the parking permit system is working, with lots of smiling staff serving happy, smiling customers: the photos will prove it.

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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on January 15, 2012 at 18:28

Clive that is incorrect. Money from parking can only be spent on transport related costs. Road maintenance and Freedom Passes.

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on January 15, 2012 at 18:46

Yes I know the council always claim that any surplus on the parking account (by sheer chance, of course) must only be spent on transport related items.

But you don't have to hold a doctorate in accounting to work out that if the council is anyway spending x on transport related items (x being quite a large number) and the parking account surplus is worth say 75% of x, then that displaces 75% of x, the total spent on transport is unchanged and 75% of x is then able to be used for anything at all. 

Given that rates are capped, it is hardly a surprise that the parking service is under pressure to boost revenue (CPZ extensions, predatory enforcement etc.) and that this is able to be used for general purposes. Hypothecation is susceptible to creative accounting.

The long term aim is probably that the entire transport budget is paid for by the Parking Account surplus, freeing up maximum monies for other things, some of them desirable, to be sure.

Examples of budgets being shuffled around would be the Decent Homes budget (to pay for the expensive "future proof" digital TV aerials) and the New River development monies paid to the council ... used elsewhere – its not unusual.

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Permalink Reply by GillianM on January 15, 2012 at 18:23

a similar experience here justin. We managed to print the perm
it but forgot to put it on the car. Well, can't blame the council for that one! However my husband has been trying to appeal this since November and has only just managed to raise a response after many emails and calls. Not actually a decision of course, just a promise to forward it to someone else! You can only feel for the poor people working in there sorting out all these problems caused no doubt by closure of payment centres, fantastic IT solutions ha ha and all the other cost saving measures.

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Permalink Reply by ant on January 15, 2012 at 20:48

I tried to buy some visitor permits by online recently and got an email back saying "due to Data Protection reasons" only my wife could buy parking tickets for our house. I emailed back saying that seemed a bit odd as we both lived here and paid council tax etc so why couldn't i buy parking tickets? I got an email back that didn't answer any of the questions but just restated that they would only give them to her. So my wife  emailed them for tickets, as far as i know the only way they knew it was her was that the gmail address was based on her name, and  a few days later we got the visitor tickets.

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