Forum Topic

Ealing's Parking Permit Scandal Features in Private Eye's Rotten Boroughs

Our local council get a mention in the latest edition for raising loads of money from residents by not issuing reminders. Ealing Today gets an honourable mention.

Christine Mulligan ● 2299d5 Comments

Aye, Aye, it should be DOUBLED, such EXCELLENT Value for Money. No, give 'em £300K and do it properly!  😂

Rosco White ● 2291d

Good luck with getting Around Ealing to publish anything that is remotely critical of the Council. It's rubbish, they couldn't even get the Christmas waste collections dates correct.Good to know that the £100,000 or so that we pay towards it every year is money well spent!

Simon Hayes ● 2291d

I know of one person who claimed a refund which was turned down. It could be further resolute action is needed to see this through to a rightful end.However, one other person, has recently received an email from parking services saying that their payment of £110 will be refunded. The money has not been received yet but this is a positive sign.It is still early to know if most, if not all, have been fully refunded.It would be good of the council to broadly publicise that these incorrectly issued PCNs will be cancelled and payments returned. It could help by explaining how to apply and it is encouraged to do this via its bi-monthly magazine that's put through resident's letterboxes and via its fortnightly email (Ealing News Extra) to residents. This request had been made directly to the editor, Richard Nadal.

Paul Cronshaw ● 2291d

Well done to you Ian and all the others who spent time to force Ealing to give way on this matter. Do we know yet if refunds are actually being paid?

Mark Evans ● 2292d

And here's the item...From the Rotten Boroughs pages in the latest issue of Private Eye magazine…• LABOUR Ealing borough council has admitted raking in thousands of pounds in fines from residents who had failed to renew their parking permits — because they hadn’t been sent reminders. Such fines totaled £2,430 in 2018 but leapt to £147,000 in 2019, reports Ealing Today. In common with many authorities, the borough no longer issues paper permits, all records being stored online. The explosion in fines occurred after the council stopped sending people email reminders that their permits were about to expire — leading to more than 3,000 parking tickets being issued to unsuspecting residents. The unprecedented happy ending is that it’s going to be refunds all round!

Ian Richardson ● 2298d