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Am so annoyed with Haringey re: Visitor's Parking Permits! Grrr

DonnaDonna
edited August 2011 in Local discussion
Just got a letter (not even addressed to me, just shoved through the door) from Haringey Council about the new Controlled Parking Zone. All very boring but I read it anyway and was glad because... buried in the middle of a paragraph it said that all visitors parking permits for roads within the new Zone B and C of the Finsbury Park CPZ must be exchanged by post by 14th October and if you used your existing permits after this date they would be invalid!!!! I bought £200 worth of permits 2 weeks ago thinking they would last me until 2015 and I just think it's outrageous they didn't tell me at the time I would need to exchange them. What's worse is that you have to do it by post, you can't do it in person, and who knows how long it will take. Plus what if my permits go missing - that's £200 lost... am so annoyed! Obviously I will have to shell out for recorded delivery but even thenI don't trust the council not to lose them all and to send them back correctly. Plus I don't trust them to do it on time. Maybe I'm being harsh but that's how I feel! By the way, this affects anyone who lives in the following roads: Finsbury Park B CPZ includes: Connaught, Dagmar, Oakfield, Cornwall, Carlton Beatrice and Lancaster Roads, Upper Tollington Park (between Oakfield Road and halfway between its junctions with Lancaster Road and Florence Road), Scarborough and Carlisle Roads. Finsbury Park C CPZ includes: Stapleton Hall Road (between Stroud Green and Lancaster Road) Mount Pleasant Crescent, Albert, Lorne, Marquis, Osbourne Roads and Upper Tollington Park (between Stroud Green Road and half way between its junctions with Lancaster and Florence Roads) Florence and Victoria Roads and Terrace.
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  • CorinneCorinne
    edited 12:47AM
    Thank you! I didn't bother to read the letter and put it straight in the recycling bin, but live on one of these roads and have loads of permits.
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  • IlovegreyhoundsIlovegreyhounds
    edited 12:47AM
    Me too! I live on Cornwall and have builders in at the moment so had to buy loads of permits last week. Would it had really hurt them to state this on the website when I downloaded the form? Thanks for pointing this out!
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  • gardener-joegardener-joe
    edited December 2017
    ...
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  • dorothydorothy
    edited 12:47AM
    I've been hoarding a great number of them in their many varieties as well. I know when I've tried to return the out of date ones before, it's hassle. You have to have complete sets of four. There's lots of checking, printing and photocopying and generally doing everything in a slow convoluted way. Not sure why they can't just let people use up their existing ones. I wouldn't trust putting them in the post either.

    I don't have much faith in their systems. Recently I had to park my car in Crouch End for two weeks, while the council tried to decide if they were going to give me a resident's permit or not, I'd moved (I had told the council my moving in date, was paying council tax etc). The previous owners of my house still had a permit they hadn't returned, which just brought the system to a grinding halt, where someone thought they would just put the application aside and ignore it for a while and not tell me.
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  • IlovegreyhoundsIlovegreyhounds
    edited 12:47AM
    Does the letter have details on how to contact the Council or where to send the permits to fro renewal? I cannot find the letter anywhere and there is nothing on the Council website!
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  • harpisticharpistic
    edited 12:47AM
    Send permits to: Haringey Council Parking Services, PO Box 55235, London N22 9DF.

    Contact details:
    tel - Customer Services 0208 489 1000
    e - parking@haringey.gov.uk
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  • graemegraeme
    edited 12:47AM
    <a href="http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/63518761?access_key=key-1n1fo9zlecxhf9y17glb">Scan of the letter</a>
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  • IlovegreyhoundsIlovegreyhounds
    edited 12:47AM
    Thank you!!
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  • valval
    edited 12:47AM
    I spoke to the man in charge of this at the council and he is going to think about the problems involved. I still haven't had the letter.
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  • nortonnorton
    edited 12:47AM
    I too have had problems with the council. I spent over 1/2 hour on the phone the other day, and spoke to several people who knew nothing about the new parking zones. To make matters worse my car permit runs out just about the time for the cut out date which is 14th October, if I apply now will I get a permit for F.P zone or will it be for the new C zone ,and will the wardens give me a ticket for displaying the wrong zone. And do the wardens know about this, and will they use their logic, I think not. The visitor permits can only be exchanged by post, and I can forsee problems. Do not send all your permits, hold some back until the new ones arrive, and exchange the rest when the C zone is up and running. God help us all.
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  • valval
    edited September 2011
    The Consultation Officer at Haringey is now aware of all the problems I could think of regarding the new permits, as we had a long discussion. He said that Residents' Permits will automatically be renewed. The Visitors' Permits are the problem. I told him that we had not all received the letter, anyway, and that there could be a great deal of confusion and disputes re parking tickets as many people will not know about the changes. He said the people distributing the leaflets were supposed to put one through letterboxes for every household, (according to the number of bells?). They obviously haven't. But I thought they should be addressed to individual householders. When I suggested that if it wasn't sorted out, Haringey might be accused of a scam, to make a fortune on parking tickets, he began to take me more seriously. Still no letters have been delivered to our address.
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  • gardener-joegardener-joe
    edited December 2017
    ...
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  • dorothydorothy
    edited 12:47AM
    I've not sent my yet. I was going to send mine, the same time as I applied for some new ones, with a covering letter so if would be harder to say they were lost.

    I noticed as well that if you want a weekend or a fortnightly permit now, you have to apply in advance giving the car registration. I've still got some two weekly ones which you have to write the registration number on. Now if you have guests to stay, or if you're having builders doing work, you need to plan ahead and ask for their car registration number probably ten days in advance and then hope they don't do something rash, like use a different car.
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  • slatsslats
    edited 12:47AM
    Received my new residents permit today.

    The new permit is so low quality, I wouldn't worry about visitors permits any more, simply scan your residents permit, add a tiny bit of photoshop work to change the reg and print. Hey presto, free parking for anyone.
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  • IlovegreyhoundsIlovegreyhounds
    edited 12:47AM
    I posted mine last week with a covering letter listing the different permits and confirming the address to send it back to. I posted it via registered mail as well. I spoke to the Council before posting them and they confirmed that they would not accept them over the counter and that they take 10 working days (i.e. two weeks) to process. If I were you I would call them and check on progress. I have builders in at the moment and they will be here until November. I have kept back enough permits to see me until the 14 Oct when the new rules come into force so if they Council don't get my new permits back on time we will have to stop our building work!
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  • gardener-joegardener-joe
    edited December 2017
    ...
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  • valval
    edited 12:47AM
    I received my visitors' parking permits after two and a half weeks. The quality seems to be the same and I got an extra one as they are in batches of four.
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  • AliAli
    edited 12:47AM
    I think the comment was about the Yearly pass on the windscreen. It has no security features in it all!
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  • katiejanekatiejane
    edited 12:47AM
    The new residents' permits are a bit naff.I want one with colour, embossed with gold and with the hologram stickers, not some shonky photocopied crap.
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  • KazKaz
    edited 12:47AM
    @gardener-joe With registered post you should be able to track it online, no? So they can't really say they haven't received them, if it has been signed for. I am glad none of my friends have a car, this seems like a nightmare!
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  • hew22hew22
    edited 12:47AM
    I hate those visitor passes, gave a couple to a builder working on my daughters flat and he accidentally put the wrong year (all other details correct) The council fined him. Why I asked - because they said he could use those vouchers again next year on the same date and same time. I said thats ridiculous, you can see it was an error, but they refused to listen. Just thought, wonder if I should bombard those nasty little bureucrates with letters asking for refund as now we obviously couldnt use those vouchers again!!!!
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  • leiba1leiba1
    edited 12:47AM
    I bought some new permits back in April, just before the Hornsey office closed down. At the time the girl told me that she had to make sure that she gave me the right ones as the CPZ was about to be split into three. For the life of me I can't see anything on them that denotes which zone, (A, B or C) they are for.
    So how do I know if I've got the right ones?
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  • IlovegreyhoundsIlovegreyhounds
    edited 12:47AM
    I have noticed the signs on our street now read 'FPB' which I guess is Finsbury Park B. @Val and Gardener-joe, do your new visitor permits have letters on them? Despite sending mine to the Council in mid Sept the new ones are yet to arrive and I am worried that I won't have them by Friday when the new zones are enforced! I'll chase them upon Monday.
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  • valval
    edited 12:47AM
    Yes, it says "B" on mine. Hope you'll get your permits shortly.
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  • gardener-joegardener-joe
    edited December 2017
    ...
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  • Don't Look NowDon't Look Now
    edited 12:47AM
    I sent mine off about 2 weeks ago, and was very pleasantly surprised to get them back in under a week. @leiba1 I think FPA isn't actually FPA, but remains FP (if you see what I mean...)
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  • IlovegreyhoundsIlovegreyhounds
    edited 12:47AM
    I rang on Monday and they said that they had been processed and would be sent via registered post that day. Expecting them today!! Maybe they took so long with mine as I had so many? I bought the full 3 mth allowance just before they decided to change them.
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  • DonnaDonna
    edited October 2011
    Got my permits today and they were sent by registered post. Hurrah! the people to contact if you need some urgently are: permits-vouchers@haringey.gov.uk If you've got permits before you can now [buy them online](https://live.esd.ce.civicahosting.co.uk/Haringey/Permits/PurchasePermitVoucher.aspx) You need an applicant ID and reference number which you can get by emailing permits-vouchers@haringey.gov.uk Good luck everyone.
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  • IlovegreyhoundsIlovegreyhounds
    edited 12:47AM
    Well, they arrived yesterday but the builder was out getting plaster so now I have to collect them from the post office depot in Green Lanes.
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  • RonaRona
    edited 12:47AM
    Totally agree with the Grr! I queried this process on 4th September and this is the reply I got on 7th OCTOBER! They don't appear to know that if you issue Freepost envelopes they will only be charged for the ones actually used. I also raised this at our Area Forum a couple of weeks ago and the Council Officer was simply not interested in answering people's queries about the administrative nightmare.

    Dear

    Thank you for your email regarding your visitor permits for the New Controlled Parking Zone.

    Regrettably we are not able to allow the old parking vouchers to be used in the new CPZ as each voucher is area sensitive. As your particular road is now in a different CPZ, they would not indicate the correct area and the CEO’s would not know that you were simply using old stock or if you were someone from a different area of the CPZ choosing to use your vouchers incorrectly. I trust that this information is useful.

    We are not supplying freepost envelops for resident to return their permits as resident may or may not required a permit exchange.

    However once we have processed the new voucher we are sending the new voucher out by recorded delivery as these have a monetary value and we need to be sure that these are delivered to the correct address.

    We are sorry that you are unhappy with this decision , as we feel that it is the most cost effective way of conduction this exchange process.

    I hope this information is helpful.

    Yours Sincerely



    Kumud Joshi
    Parking Service
    Place and Sustainability Directorate
    London Borough of Haringey

    Parking Website
    http://www.haringey.gov.uk/index/environment_and_transport/parking.htm
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