The council is showing the red card to match-day “scratch card” parking permits which residents living near the football ground in Falmer had to buy if they had guests.
The “scratch permits” were brought in last year, replacing the previous system of free permits in Coldean and Moulsecoomb on Brighton and Hove Albion match days.
Brighton and Hove City Council said that it was doing a three-point turn and hitting reverse after listening to feedback from residents.
Labour councillor Mitchie Alexander, who represents Coldean and Stanmer, said “I’m really pleased that we’ve been able to return to free guest permits for residents in zones B and D.”
“We arranged public meetings and listened to what people had to say. Ultimately, residents in Coldean and Moulsecoomb shouldn’t be out of pocket because of games at the Amex – and your local Labour councillors will keeping working hard to ensure that they aren’t.”
Everyone living in the affected areas are being sent new guest permits this month.
The council will then bring in a “virtual” system in the summer, allowing residents to register guest permits without needing a paper copy.
Help and support is promised for “digitally excluded” residents.
The council said: “The initial change was made to combat potential fraud (and) reselling of permits but residents made clear that the change was not supported – and ultimately cost them to have visitors on certain days.”
Residents in zones B and D are due to receive two paper permits by post this month, along with a letter explaining how to use the permits.
The council plans to write to them again in late May to tell them how they can apply for the new virtual permits.
When next season starts, the council is likely to rely on warning notices instead of parking tickets in the first instance.
But after a grace period, anyone who parks on a match day or event day without an activated virtual permit can expect to receive a penalty charge notice (PCN).
Every resident 17 and over will be entitled to one event-day permit based on their vehicle registration – their number plate – and one free transferrable guest permit.
The council added: “Further details of the system will be refined in the coming months, aligned with customer needs, service requirements and the ongoing parking review.”
They were only introduced by the council in October last year. What a waste of time for the council to not listen to concerns that came up during the consultation and pushed them through.
Clearly a big problem is the lack of enforcement on match days of illegal parking, and the solution to this would be more resources – but rather than that the Labour councillors opted for this odd scratch card system in the meantime. It’s good that it’s being scrapped, but what a waste of time and money by the council in the first place.
It was my understanding the scratch tickets came in on the back of a consultation that took place a few years beforehand, where residents showed concern for how many of the free visitor permits were being sold and so this caused parking chaos. The Green administration actually scrapped the free visitor permits and were going to charge £50 per year for a household to have a visitors permit. But due to the old computer systems, the system was never updated and so the £50 was never actually charged. £50 per year seemed very unfair. So this was then scrapped last year and replaced with the one day stretch off permits. But of course this still didn’t work for residents, who shouldnt have to pay for their relative to visit them on a match day. So after further community engagements, a new and free solution has now been found.
It wasn’t just the cost of scratch cards to residents that was the issue. There is no limit to how many scratch cards a person can purchase. Under the old ‘any car’ permit system, the number of cars in the area on match day was at least limited to the number of residents permits and the accompanying any permits. Once the scratch cards came in, the number of cars could potentially increase tenfold. It was such an ill thought out idea, and all it achieved was to stop a few residents making the odd tenner, while making the council a lot more money.
Thank god I have a commercial work van and it has been a nightmare everytime Brighton played at home I had to move the van out of the parking area even tho I live right next door to the stadium
It would be good if the council showed the red card to “any” parking permits which are issued to council workers and can be transferred to any car and account for a huge number of vehicles around the ground on match days.
The biggest problem is for reasons unknown, we still don’t have a park and ride in falmer, even through there is a massive un used carpark next to Brighton uni sports pitches. Get is sorted…
How about a refund for unused scratch cards. !!!!