A rare paean of praise for a Council re parking permits
Discussion
I have recently moved into a flat in Belsize Park which is in the London Borough of Camden. When last I had a London parking permit it was issued by Islington, and the permit process was rather clunky. To be fair it had not yet gone digital and was still paper based.
In Camden (and maybe Islington too by now) you can obtain a permit online in minutes without producing any documents. You pay up front and have twelve weeks to produce residence and car documents. You can have up to three cars on the permit, with the second and third cars being progressively more expensive. One car can be active on the permit at any given time. The permit is an invisible e-permit, and becomes active straight away. Changing the car on the permit takes seconds.
On the pay and display parking paying by phone is easy and cheap, and the system (used by other boroughs too) stores car and payment details so you just press a few buttons on the keypad as you walk away from the car. If I was less Luddite I could do it on an app, perhaps, or register to do it by SMS.
This is one local government IT project that has been well handled.
Some will say that it is a pill having to pay to park near your house, but London is busy and councils are strapped for cash. I don't mind paying for a scarce commodity, and the ability to park on land that isn't yours isn't a right. I assume that some of the money goes to a contractor and some to the council, and that's OK by me.
Anyway, CSB, I know, but it makes a change from all the oh noes my life is ruined by the Parking-Nazis blah.
In Camden (and maybe Islington too by now) you can obtain a permit online in minutes without producing any documents. You pay up front and have twelve weeks to produce residence and car documents. You can have up to three cars on the permit, with the second and third cars being progressively more expensive. One car can be active on the permit at any given time. The permit is an invisible e-permit, and becomes active straight away. Changing the car on the permit takes seconds.
On the pay and display parking paying by phone is easy and cheap, and the system (used by other boroughs too) stores car and payment details so you just press a few buttons on the keypad as you walk away from the car. If I was less Luddite I could do it on an app, perhaps, or register to do it by SMS.
This is one local government IT project that has been well handled.
Some will say that it is a pill having to pay to park near your house, but London is busy and councils are strapped for cash. I don't mind paying for a scarce commodity, and the ability to park on land that isn't yours isn't a right. I assume that some of the money goes to a contractor and some to the council, and that's OK by me.
Anyway, CSB, I know, but it makes a change from all the oh noes my life is ruined by the Parking-Nazis blah.
Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 25th October 13:43
citizensm1th said:
beard ,hipster haircut and tattoos next
will we be seeing you at wheels and waves next year?
I deplore all the hipster dads around here with their neck beards and tats and foolish mono wheeled vehicles, but I do not deplore all the gym-honed and leather-trousered hyper-MILFs. will we be seeing you at wheels and waves next year?
gooner1 said:
Fair play to Camden but doesn't the allowance of up to three permits
limit the number of individuals able to obtain one, or do you mean that it covers up to three
vehicles but only one can be parked at any one time?
One at a time - you designate an active vehicle on the website. Switching vehicle takes a few seconds. limit the number of individuals able to obtain one, or do you mean that it covers up to three
vehicles but only one can be parked at any one time?
Breadvan72 said:
citizensm1th said:
beard ,hipster haircut and tattoos next
will we be seeing you at wheels and waves next year?
I deplore all the hipster dads around here with their neck beards and tats and foolish mono wheeled vehicles, but I do not deplore all the gym-honed and leather-trousered hyper-MILFs. will we be seeing you at wheels and waves next year?
Breadvan72 said:
I saw that very thing about two hours ago whilst I was heading out for a run on Primrose Hill. The skateboarder's son was with him and looked suitably mortified.
you will love this guy then hahahahahttp://www.brianbentgallery.com/music-and-life/
i really like his art and f
ks given none attitudeBreadvan72 said:
One at a time - you designate an active vehicle on the website. Switching vehicle takes a few seconds.
Well, it does when the naffing site works properly. Half the time adding a vehicle/switching a vehicle is not possible owing to a glitch in the system and good luck trying to talk to a human being at Camden Council these days since they went all interwebby.
One skanky heap is in London at any given time (currently Dolomite Sprint). The other leprous junkpiles are rotting outside a farmhouse in Oxfordshire. When I get rid of that place next year, I will sell some of the putrid wrecks and maybe place one or two others in renty storage in a place I know in Islington. Most of the stboxes are too old to pay the T-charge.
tboxes are too old to pay the T-charge.Camden are one of the very few London authorities that have a contactable parking department, and they are generally quite helpful and reasonable to deal with.
Other authorities nearby can only be contacted in writing to a PO Box address, and every member of the team is seemingly issued with a large rubber stamp with "NO!" on it.
Other authorities nearby can only be contacted in writing to a PO Box address, and every member of the team is seemingly issued with a large rubber stamp with "NO!" on it.
Breadvan72 said:
Some will say that it is a pill having to pay to park near your house, but London is busy and councils are strapped for cash. I don't mind paying for a scarce commodity, and the ability to park on land that isn't yours isn't a right
.
Well done. The sooner more people release that the better. In central London most people pay less council tax and less to park than other cities yet because the pay for a permit and "road tax" they demand a space outside their house. .
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