Over 3,000 Fines Given to Residents Not Renewing Permits
FoI request shows Ealing Council didn’t send email reminders for 3 months
A Freedom of Information (FoI) request to Ealing Council has revealed that over 3,000 PCNs were issued to vehicles which previously had a resident permit in just over a year.
It is believed that in the majority of cases the fines are due to a failure to renew the permit and a significant number of people say they have been caught out because they did not receive a reminder from the council. Ealing has an online system with no permit displayed on the vehicle.
Acton resident Barry Gleeson was one of those caught out in this way and he has made an appeal against the fine. At the same time he made a series of requests for information about the PCNs being issued by Ealing under FoI legislation having read on this site that other people had had a similar issue.
He said, “When I was landed with a parking fine for failing to renew my parking permit I was raging with myself until I realised that I hadn't received a reminder and your article told me this had happened loads of people in Ealing - and the council were fairly nonchalant about it.”
What he learned from the request was that fines for failed renewals had gone up from just £2,430 in 2018 to £147,000 the following year, an increase of 6,000% This rise has occurred since the new system was introduced.
Furthermore his questions revealed that, despite the Council’s claim that they had sent over 18,000 emails to remind people of forthcoming expiry of their permits, there have been several months in which no email reminders were sent including February 2019 and July to August 2019. These months also had spikes in PCNs being issued with a peak of 455 given out in August.
Overall there were 3,310 PCNs issued in Ealing between September 2018 and October 2019 to vehicles that previously had a resident permit raising a total of £147,415.
The Council refused to answer Mr Gleeson’s request for the number of complaints that had been made to them about the issue, saying that it would be too expensive to collate the information.
Mr Gleeson has lodged another complaint to the Council in which he says this is a systematic lack of duty of care as he is registered online for permits and the Council were made aware it was an issue for residents.
Another Ealing borough resident Arthur Breens is compiling a list of residents who have been fined as part of a broader complaint against the Council. If you would like to be included with this complaint you can email him on breens01@btinternet.com.
Ealing Council said previously on the matter, '' It is the permit holder's responsibility to renew their parking permit before their current permit is due to expire. You may be liable to receive a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) if you park in a permit holders' space and your permit has been expired for more than seven days.''
An Ealing Council spokesperson said, “The quickest and easiest way to check the status of your permit is to go online at the council’s website and log in into your account. Here you can check the expiry date and renew, which takes a matter of minutes.
“As a courtesy we do aim to email a reminder to customers 28 days before their permits are due to expire. However, we encourage all customers to log on to their account to review and renew well in advance of expiry to avoid any chance of receiving penalty charge.”
October 26, 2019
