Staff shortages blamed for Brighton and Hove parking permit delays

Brighton and Hove City Council has granted the extended grace period because of a shortage in its parking team.

A banner on the council 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.”