Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
More Exceptional Resident Parking Charges from Haringey
I've just come across yet another way that Haringey Council stands out amongst its peers as making exceptional and unnecessary parking charges to residents.
Last year, I found that Haringey was alone amongst north London boroughs in refusing to refund unused visitor permits. Although I successfully challenged that on my own account, the Council have since muddied the waters further and now it seems that the staff can't even agree on the situation. But the result is that refunds are refused as a matter of course.
This week, I came across another exceptional sneak charge for resident parking.
There are times when the car has to go into hospital. If you're lucky you get a courtesy car, you need to make arrangements to park it. I had to avail myself of a courtesy car this week and, with a heavy heart, trudged up to Wood Green Library to make arrangements. The member of staff was very helpful and processed all the necessary. Finishing off, she handed me my temporary permit and said, "Thank you. That's £30 please".
So, I'm not adding a car, I'm replacing one temporarily - as it happens one with lower emissions than my own car. But they want to charge me £30. It's a uniform charge for 20 days whatever your existing car is. It seems totally out of proportion.
The bizarre proportionality of the charge is even more evident when set against the annual resident permit charge. For the lowest band, the charge is 150% of the annual charge! Yes that's right, the courtesy car charge is 50% more than the full parking permit charge for the whole year! For the next band it's 100% and so on, until by Band 6 it's 30% of the charge.
At Band 2, the normal parking charge for an annual permit calculated on a daily basis is about 8p. At courtesy car rates it's £1.50 a day - or almost 20 times as much - and that's on top of the annual permit you've already paid for.
This can't be right. So, I thought I'd quickly check the situation in the neighbouring boroughs of Islington, Hackney, Enfield, Camden, Waltham Forest, Barnet and Brent.
ALL the other boroughs make NO charge. You can make a temporary change free of charge, either on line, by email and phone or in person. Even Westminster only charge £10.
So, yet again, where all the other neighbouring boroughs choose to charge nothing, Haringey are making sneaky additional parking charges that hit those least able to pay the hardest.
Let me be clear, I'm not complaining about the £30. Fortunately, I'm perfectly able to pay it without any hardship. But I'm sure there are plenty of others on extraordinarily tight budgets for whom this charge is a real burden.
After my last experience of inaccuracy/mendacity over visitor parking permit refunds, I may just check that the Council are following their Traffic Management Orders on this. But, either way, this is an unnecessary charge which isn't made by neighbouring councils. It puts an unfair burden on those least able to pay and should be scrapped without delay.
Tags for Forum Posts: parking, parking permits, visitor parking permits
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Roslyn Byfield on
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Thanks for alerting us, Hugh. Is there nothing this lot won't stoop to?
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Got to line their pockets some how, after all it must be hard providing all those cut back services.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Personally, I don't have an issue being charged more by the Council. They have after all lost a huge amount of government funding But I'd much rather they adopt a more honest and open approach. I'd rather they put the focus on raising revenue by adjusting the Council tax. Where they feel the need to make charges, they should openly declare any charges they make, explaining why they're making them and what provision they're putting in place for those least able to pay.
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Here's my FOI request:
Please provide me with the following information:
1. When did Haringey Council start charging residents who currently hold an annual parking permit pay to park a courtesy car whilst their registered car is absent from the borough?
2. Prior to the decision being made to introduce this charge, was any work undertaken to assess what charges are made in the same situation in other London boroughs? If so please provide a full copy of the report detailing the outcome of that work, including the findings.
3. Prior to the decision being made to introduce this charge, was any work undertaken to assess the impact of this charge on lower income residents in the borough? If so please provide a full copy of the report detailing the outcome of that work, including the findings.
4. Please detail which traffic management orders (TMOs) and/or any other authority under which these charges are made. Please supply a copy of any TMO or other authority which you cite in your response.
Many thanks
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It could have been so conceived. If that were to be the case you might ask why only Haringey Council chooses to so conceive it. Why has no other north London council chosen to conceive such a charge. Why has even Westminster chosen to charge 70% less than Haringey? I suppose you might ask if Haringey are supremely wise, are more switched on than all the other councils. I suppose you might ask all kinds of questions, but there again, I suppose you might think that there's already enough information available to make a judgment on the decision Haringey has made, especially when set against the wider picture that's emerging of its quietly introduced array of supplementary charges.
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Reminds me of (some of) the high street banks being called out a few years ago now, over charges for overdraft infringement and the like which bore no relation to the internal admin cost of producing the letters. Ditto Wonga, even more injuriously.....
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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They can come from the money made from parking fines. The politicians who allowed this to happen didn't scope the law very well and so when "Freedom passes" were introduced, which are paid for by the council you live in, the money for that can come from the "transport" budget. They thought the'd done a blinder and that the "transport" budget would be used for running the CPZ and fixing potholes!
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I've already received an answer from Waltham Forest and they've confirmed that their courtesy car permits are also free for 28 days. I've amended he original post to reflect this.
This will please Eye Spy, you get more for less.
PS: Also added Barnet to the 'free list'.
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You get the same for the same, i.e. a 1 for 1 exchange. I'd call this reasonable and sensible.
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Permalink Reply by Matt on
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Earlier this year we purchased a new car. The paperwork for a new vehicle can take a while to arrive, and in the meantime Haringey BC refused to accept any of the sales documentation as proof of ownership or registration to our address. Even though we had an existing permit we were told we couldn’t continue to use this temporarily, nor could we transfer it to the new vehicle. When I asked what I was supposed to do for the period I would therefore be without a valid permit we were met with the same “we’d be happy to send you a temporary permit for £30”. I refused, and cue a number of fines which thankfully we later successfully fought. I’ve never lived anywhere else that is so obstructive or money grabbing in such a situation.
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