Forum Topic

CPZ parking renewals - update

Common sense has prevailed...After my initial challenge to my CPZ parking fine was rejected, I did a second challenge, and received this in today's mail:NOTICE OF ACCEPTANCEThank you for your correspondence about the above Penalty Charge Notice (PCN). Although the PCN was issued correcly [sic], We have looked at the case in detail and we have accepted your representations on this occasion. Therefore we have cancelled the above PCN. Please be advised permit reminders are sent as a courtesy and is not compulsory, as with vehicle tax, it is up to drivers to renew their permits. However, any similar or additional PCNs may not be cancelled and this decision must not be taken as a precedent. In light of the above the case is closed and no further action need be taken.---------For those who haven't been following the previous thread, I was fined for parking outside my house near Ealing Common one day after my CPZ permit expired. My complaint was that the council had failed in its declared duty to notify me that the permit was due for renewal. I have since learned that a great many people have been fined similarly.

Ian Richardson ● 1980d11 Comments

I have an email copied to me that says the head of parking is now intending to use the database to ensure that all affected by this IT failure will have their PCNs cancelled and or money refunded.

Arthur Breens ● 1928d

We are all (even those who don't own a vehicle are interested in how the council treats its residents) waiting for a public announcement, explanation and apology for the appalling way they have handled this. It would be sensible to add that we would like assurances such IT failures won't happen again, but if they do, how will the council treat us next time.

Paul Cronshaw ● 1940d

Or Ealing could simply admit that the whole system is flawed and adopt the 'Hillingdon model'.Far fewer but larger zones (I live at the 'junction' of three Ealing  zones each with different limitations) and a totally free permit for the first vehicle in each household.They have also retained paper visitor permits at low cost.Their busines and trader permits are also significantly cheaper than Ealing's.

N V Brooks ● 1941d

I gather that one of the problems with paper permits is that, with photo workshopping/colour printing facilities in many homes, it is quite easy to produce a realistic fake to display in your car.  One of the reasons why paper road tax licences have been dropped as well.But there is no reason why you can't place your own expiry date reminder in your car.

Philip Coe ● 1941d

"It would be interesting to know if the number of penalty charges has shot up since this invisible electronic system was introduced." - Methinks you already knew the answer to this one as you typed Mr Evans?  😆

Rosco White ● 1941d

Common sense suggests that Ealing should go back to providing paper permits that we can stick inside our windscreen as before, which would act as a permanent reminder of when it expires. You'd think it would also make it easier for wardens to spot expired permits at a glance rather than presumably keying every car's number plate into their device just in case. It would be interesting to know if the number of penalty charges has shot up since this invisible electronic system was introduced.

Peter Evans ● 1941d

I feel rather foolish. My neighbours (5) received PCNs for non renewal. I raised it at a Walpole Ward Forum on 7 Oct and Cllr Binda Rai said," Send them to me", which I did without acknowledgement or reply from her. She gets £25000 a year in expenses to represent residents in her ward. I collected more victims names. The Head of Parking Gina Cole asked me for my list at a meeting (18 Nov). I gave her a redacted list because I wanted her to refund all not just the ones on the list on a "case by case" basis. This was partly humorous but also to make the point.Those at  the meeting thought she would refund all.Her reply shortly afterwards was that she was still attached to this case by case basis. Does her job depend upon it?My problem is that in a democracy all should be treated the same. More it is central to our democracy. For some our religions state clearly that we are treated equal under God. In failed democracies groups were treated differently along a slippery slope to all sorts of unpleasant regimes. I can't get my party to understand this. I have written to a large number of councillors and they don't reply. The CEO and the Parking Manager take the line of injustice. I am waiting now for my newly re-elected MP to come back from the break in parliament, Christmas and New Year to help me. However it isn't her job to sort out this Council. This isn't the England I grew up in. I am ashamed. More information to come soon.My list must be around 80 now

Arthur Breens ● 1941d

Ian and Paul,Well done on your work on this.  I too was caught out on this.  Of course the council will make it hard for people to reclaim the money they have lost.  More importantly looking forward I think we should insist that the council sends more than one reminder email and sends texts too until the permit is renewed or the user asks the council to stop reminding them.  I note the library send a out loads of reminder texts about overdue books. So it is not hard, technically difficult or expensive I suspect. Phil

Phil Taylor ● 1970d

Tricia: that is unclear. The council initially rebuffed all appeals (before payment) blithely stating it was the fault of the PCN recipient's memory. Since the PCNs were issued as a result of their IT system's breakdown their response was, and is still, infantile at best and disingenuous at worst.The council now states that payment of these illegitimate and unjust PCNs is an admission of liability and they will block appeals with this 'legislation'.An experienced legal mind will know the way to find redress and refunds for those who are out of pocket.

Paul Cronshaw ● 1972d

Well done both. Is the front page article on this, which seems to indicate there is little point appealing a PCN if you have already paid, correct?

Tricia Arbuthnot ● 1974d

Good outcome! Welcome news.In the meantime there is still a continuing growing sense of resentment at the way the council has handled this matter affecting around 3000 residents. Progress is being made, all too slowly considering this started in July, in getting the council to make amends, automatically act to cancel all these illegitimate PCNs and refund those who paid without appealing.Below is a copy of an email dated 25 November from the council's chief executive, Paul Najsarek, about this 'scandal':START I am informed that in July 2019 the parking services management system provider performed an upgrade to the system.  This had the unintended consequence of  stopping email renewal notices being sent to our customers.  As soon as we were made aware of this we worked really hard with the system provider to ensure the service was re-instated by 16th August 2019.  In the event of any system failure in the future the service will ensure that we have a more robust communication strategy with members and residents.The 3,310 PCNs were issued for different contravention codes, 12r, 19r, and 19z between 01/09/2018 to 21/10/2019 to vehicles who had a residential permit in the past.However the data behind the statistic covers the following scenarios:    Contravention code 12r =  Parked in a residents’ or shared use parking place or zone without either clearly displaying a valid permit or voucher or pay & display ticked issued for that place, or without payment or a parking charge.    Contraventions codes 19r and 19z = Parked in a residents’ or shared use parking place or zone either displaying an invalid permit or voucher or pay and display ticket, or after the expiry of paid for time.Of the 3,310 PCNs issued in the 13 month period (all of which had expired permits) 1,411 had received an email reminder that their permit was due to expire. The remaining 1,899 figure includes instances where someone with a recently expired permit was issued with a PCN in a different zone (where their permit would never have been valid anyway). It also included permits where no renewal reminder would have been sent because the permit hadn’t expired – they had actually cancelled their permit during the year.If residents received a penalty charge notice as a result of not receiving an email renewal reminder during this time and wish to challenge the notice they should do so in writing to us at Parkingrep@ealing.gov.uk  and decisions will be made on the individual merits of each case.Although I understand why you would approach the Director of IT for comment on this matter, the permit and PCN database is not an IT system maintained by the Council. The IT system systems used by Parking Services are managed by officers in the Parking Department and maintained by the manufacturer, WSP. The system is very specialised, and the management of it requires an expert knowledge of parking processes and legislation which is why the management of the contract lies with Parking Services. Nonetheless, we have the full support of IT, who assisted us when the permit and PCN database was procured, and meet with us on a monthly basis as we manage the wide array of IT systems and projects used by the service and provided by IT. When the issue of the permit reminder message came to light it was immediately apparent that this was a matter that required the attention of WSP rather than colleagues in the IT department. This is why assistance was not sought from the Director of IT. END

Paul Cronshaw ● 1979d