Drivers are being given a 21-day “grace period” as they wait for resident parking permits because of a staff shortage.
Brighton and Hove City Council has granted the extended grace period because of a shortage in its parking team.
A banner on the council’s website tells drivers to keep displaying their old parking permit for three weeks after the expiry date printed on it.
The grace period applies provided a renewal application has been submitted and the vehicle is parked in the right zone.
Robert Brown, who has stood for the Liberal Democrats in elections in Kemptown ward, wants the council to reopen the walk-in office at Hove Town Hall at least once a week so that residents can renew and collect permits in person.
Mr Brown has been waiting more than two weeks for zone H visitor permits.
He said: “I paid for my tickets on (Friday) 23 August – £83 was immediately taken from my bank.
“Two weeks later I received an email saying my permit would be dispatched by courier to arrive in 10 working days.
“Why should we have to wait nearly four weeks from payment to possibly receiving permits?”
Lara Pearson, who lives in zone J, between Viaduct Road and Stanford Avenue, had problems both this year and last year.
Last year, the council website would not accept her insurance certificate and she found it “impossible” to contact council staff.
She said: “Payment went through and the permit still took almost three weeks to arrive. I stuck a note on my dashboard with the payment date.
“This year, I went super-early, sent everything through with six weeks to spare, the money left my account but no permit has arrived yet three weeks later.”
Mo Abdsami has emailed the council to chase up the permit he applied for in mid-August but has heard nothing.
Mr Abdsami said: “I have applied for a parking permit and paid for it and uploaded all the documents but (am) yet to hear back from Brighton and Hove City Council. It’s been since (Monday) 19 August.
“Even though I emailed them a couple of times, (I have had) no reply. It’s getting ridiculous.”
Zee Mehmood said that the system was “an extreme joke” as he received a parking ticket after waiting 10 days for his permit.
He said: “I got my first parking ticket today (Monday 9 September). That’s free money to the council where I could’ve used that for my disability needs. Parking elsewhere costs around £100 a week as well.”
Labour councillor Trevor Muten, the cabinet member for transport, parking and the public realm, said: “We have a number of vacant roles in the parking team which we are currently recruiting into.
“Unfortunately, this has led to some delays in issuing residents’ permits. We apologise for the inconvenience this is causing to residents.
“We’ve extended the grace period for a short time to ensure vehicles do not incorrectly receive a penalty charge notice.
“We are focused on resuming as soon as possible the level of service residents should expect from our parking services team.”
I know of one person who has already waited 21 days (9/9) Perhaps it should be longer ?
‘staff shortages’ ?
BHCC is full of lazy incompetents, constantly throwing a sickie and shirking from home! The Transport department is overpopulated, and is ineffective and profligate.
Also I’ve reported that the app does not work in Quebec street for pay and display and don’t get any response instead ha e been getting 4 tickets a day will be appealing all of them this council is useless and needs a shake up or another local election problems across all departments
How many people work in the department?
It sounds like incredibly poor management on BHCC’s part if they are so short staffed that vacancies are affecting basic services to this extend.
If lots of vacancies appeared at once and were unforeseen, perhaps that’s even more telling of a not great culture and working environment at the council. Councillors like Trevor Muten really should be more on top of this, or perhaps the attitude of the current administration is a factor an atmosphere within the parking team that’s making people leave in droves and creating job vacancies.
Really stressful for people in the meantime having to wait to get their permits.
Muten’s only concern seems to be getting VG3 over the line, to satisfy his mates in Bricycles. The council’s own consultants have told BHCC VG3 no tangible benefit and will cause more congestion/pollution….and cost the local taxpayer £7m+. Brilliant!
Strange, I’ve just looked on the council website and I can’t see any vacancies advertised.
Seems a poor performance to starve the cash cow of resources.