Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
What is going on with Haringey Parking?
Is it just me or is anyone else struggling with Haringey parking services.
In August I tried to renew my residents permit and but visitor permits. Neither arrived. I eventually emailed and over the next week 3 copies of my resident permit arrived.
The visitor permits still haven't arrived, I received an email acknowledging that I had tried to order some and asking which types I wanted, to which I replied but am still waiting a response. I called the number in the email signature and it doesn't work, nor does the number on a previous email from a different employee.
Finally, also in August I challenged a PCN online (I foolishly parked in a business permit space but thought it was worth appealing to their kind nature and forgive my mistake). Yesterday I received a letter saying that I now owed £130, but I've never received a letter responding to my challenge.
Any advice on any of these gratefully received
PS I dream of visiting the parking shop with a fistful of documents and queuing for hours, just to get an answer from a real person!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Gill on
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PCN - I too have had a problem with this as the only contact route is via email to the parking company.
I did get a response to my challenge but they seemed to have mixed my misdemeanour with someone else's!!! My PCN is from July and am still waiting the decision.
Keep emailing them. It sounds as if your challenge didn't go through the process, or it did and someone has done something wrong.
With regard to permits, it is worth taking some time out to visit the offices in Wood Green, just don't go on a Monday or Friday or between 12 and 2. I have been a couple of times in the afternoon and have only had to wait up to 10 minutes to be seen by some very helpful people.
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Permalink Reply by Florence on
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I went last week to buy some parking permits for some worksmen in Wood Green. They were experiencing IT problems and managed to deduct the cost of the permits from my credit card, then they reversed the transaction. The nice lady serving me gave me a comp day parking permit to tide me over but I was a long time waiting and dealing with the request. I left without the permits I wanted and have to check my credit card to make sure the transaction has not gone through. Not a very productive afternoon.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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From what you posted, Helen, it seems you'd actually paid for a permit - though parked in the wrong sort of bay. In other words, you weren't trying to freeload, or cheat anyone. You simply made a genuine mistake.
The basic problem, it seems to me, is that Haringey's Parking Service - I assume as in most other local councils - is expected to make millions profit. Except they're not actually allowed to call it profit. Because legally councils' Parking Accounts are not supposed to be run as businesses. But of course they are.
So, legally I'm sure there's no income "target". But for all practical purposes there is. (Maybe they use terms like "hypothecate"?) A couple of years ago I sat on Council Scrutiny Panel when a member of the council staff mentioned the amount of the surplus they were supposed to reach that year.
Which means that "appealing to their kind nature" is unlikely to work. And on the whole, I don't think they can be blamed for this. As a former councillor I got to know several people within the Parking Service and found most of them thoughtful, decent people who tried to be reasonable and respond to individual situations. But it now seems that the drive to maximise profit and cut costs has reduced both their room for manoeuvre and the human contact.
In your position I suggest you might try contacting Derek Dishman - the blogger Mr Mustard. He is very keen on exposing the Parking mistakes and idiocies of the London Borough of Barnet. (Which reading his blog, make Haringey's seem as efficient as a Dyson compared with a dustpan.)
However, he may be willing to offer you some practical advice. He also offers a guide to appealing PCNs on his website. It's mainly intended for victims customers of the Barnet Parking Service. But you may find some useful tips in it. It's free, but if people find his advice helpful, Derek asks them to consider a donation to his local hospice charity.
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Permalink Reply by Robin Parker on
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I have been there too, with a slightly confusing business space misdemeanour (a space in my zone that is for business unloading only for about 1 hour of the day - the hour when i stopped to get a takeaway on the way home!)
Appealing to human kindness is worth it (in terms of delaying payment if nothing else!) but as you say they're profit-driven and it all counts to their coffers. I had no problem though in them sticking to the reduced rate.
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Ah yes, the hour for unloading marked by a tiny symbol, I've done that too on Green Lanes and paid the price! I really thought I was being more aware this time!
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Thanks Alan, I don't really mind paying the £65 and knew it was a long shot but I thought I'd have a go. Its just annoying now that that process may have ended up costing me more money!
I didn't know I could still go to the Wood Green offices so will visit tomorrow morning and see whats going on. Still think the whole set up is bonkers, in Camden you can pay for visitor permits on your phone as and when you nee them.
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Hats of to Alan Stanton.
It cannot have been easy for Alan to be so refreshingly frank about a topic as sensitive as parking that for years has been seen by many as a legalised rip off run by the council that has so frequentl;y been defended by Councillors as nothing of the sort.
Well now we know the truth of the matter.
Well done Alan.
John Leach
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