Cashless & clueless ( Barnet Council are per the Barnet Labour Group )

Here is a press release of today

News from Labour

London Borough of Barnet Labour Group

We’re on your side

For immediate release

Monday 28 November 2011

Parking PayPoints show Barnet is
“cashless and clueless”

Parking PayPoints are too few and far away from parking areas in town centres according to Labour councillors.

The Council allows a 3 minute grace period between parking and displaying a parking voucher, but a recently released list of PayPoint locations across the Borough shows that many PayPoints are too far away for residents and visitors to find parking, pay for parking and display their parking voucher within the 3 minute time allowed.

A small sample of PayPoints shows that:

• In Totteridge, the Whetstone PayPoint is no longer available, and the nearest 3 PayPoints are much further away – North Finchley PayPoints are 0.83 miles away, Mays Lane and Wood Street PayPoints are over a mile away
• In East Finchley, there is only one PayPoint at the Long Lane Supermarket which is ¼ of a mile away from the nearest parking bays on the High Road.
• In Burnt Oak, there is only one PayPoint in Watling Avenue which is towards Burnt Oak Broadway and is at least a five minute walk away from the parking bays near the Library and the car park.
• In West Hendon, the CostCutter PayPoint in West Hendon Broadway is closed, and the nearest 2 PayPoints are at the BP Petrol Station which is 0.14 miles away, and the Metro Local which is 0.61 miles away from Perryfield car park.

Labour councillors also believe that the sign-posting to PayPoints in many cases is poor, and that the cost of the new proposed scratch cards, at £2 each with a minimum purchase of 4, is far too expensive for many local residents who just want to pop to the shops on a short trip. The cost of parking has been the subject of vociferous complaint by local residents and traders alike, who believe that high streets and town centres have already become deserted as a result of cash-less parking.

Labour councillors would like to see a more flexible and cheaper scratch-card system, and they support a two week Christmas amnesty on parking in Barnet’s Town Centres.

Labour’s Environment Spokesperson, Cllr Kath McGuirk, said:

"The PayPoint fiasco shows that under the Tories, parking policy in Barnet is not just cashless, it is completely clueless. In the run-up to Christmas Barnet should be supporting its traders and town centres - what we need is more flexible cash payment options, including cheaper scratch cards, and a two-week parking amnesty."

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Less a question of PayPoint rather one of NoPoint trying to pay for your parking this way.

As a local resident said at a meeting of the Chipping Barnet Residents Forum last week it is

a FigLeaf, a Nonsense, Shameful and a Disgrace

I agree. Barnet Council have really not thought about the practical issues very well. They need to start again with the needs of, for example, the deaf, technophobes, the old, and the able-bodied all given equal weight and devise a system which brings together a number of different ways of paying which serves all drivers. The council make millions out of parking charges - you would think that the sensible thing to do would be to make paying them painless.

Yours appealingly

Ms Feezance

Crossover / dropped kerb parking - help needed

Here is a picture of a car, the black one, which was given a parking ticket for obstructing a crossover ( lowered kerb ). This car is outside the CPZ but just so you know the whole of Barnet is what is called a Special Enforcement Area and so you should never park across a dropped kerb ( except outside a CPZ and with the permission of the householder ).

It is clear that the car is not obstructing the crossover as a crossover is defined as starting where the level of the footway is lowered to meet the level of the road. That means that if your car ends alongside the sloping stone which takes the path down to meet the road then no contravention has occurred.

What I want like to have, to help my friend with his appeal, is photographs of cars which were similarly parked and where the PCN ticket ( Penalty Charge Notice ) was cancelled upon appeal. I would also need to have the PCN reference number if you are happy for your case to be used in support of my friend.

Even better if you have taken your case all the way to Patas as that will have set out the guidelines.

I do hope that you can help.

Yours appealingly

Miss Feezance