25 Aug 2023
It might sound cynical but do the officers working for SADC just dream up ways to make people’s lives even more difficult on a daily basis? Everybody is feeling the pinch. Should you really have to pay to go and visit your friend who has spent a fortune to live in ‘sought-after’ St Albans?
Cannon Street residents – who live in a Controlled Parking Zone – are both frustrated and angered by changes to the council’s visitor parking scheme.
They already pay through the nose for everything from house prices or high rents to council tax – yet also have to have an annual permit to park outside their own homes and their friends and family have to pay when visiting.
Now a further layer of hassle and arguably cost is being added to that process which could mean only a privileged few will be able to afford to pop round to their friend’s house for a cuppa.
The current system is a scratch-card type permit bought by home-owners and tenants, who can hand their visitor a pass revealing the time and date of their visit, in order to not get a parking ticket. The new system, expected to launch soon, requires people to go online and pay to visit their friend or family member. While the same card could have been used across a day to serve several visitors – includes tradespeople – over different times, the new way means each individual will have to pay to park.
Retired Mary McIntyre visits her daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren regularly. Mary said: “My daughter buys a book of parking vouchers and when I visit I put one in my car window.
“Now it means going online. Two problems with that. Older people sometimes struggle with technology. As it is going to be done by car registration plate numbers, residents will no longer be able to use the same voucher in a day.
“Say I go now in the morning and give my daughter the voucher back, a tradesman could use it in the afternoon and then a friend popping in in the evening could also use it. The new way will thus arguably triple the cost to the householder.”
Many other residents of Cannon Street are not in favour of this either. Michael Bateman told us: “The old system is not broken so let’s break it!! That’s the council for you!”
While Kate Bootsy said: “It’s a faff. It’s a pity to have to keep going to the website. They run out after a year and they will be more expensive than the current ones.”
Joe Abdalla argued it is “yet another irritating and expensive change brought in by our useless council, making life more difficult for motorists” and Joanna Tatlock said that she thinks the whole of the street is unhappy about it.
Another resident claims it could impact on her business. Claire Nolan Trulock said: “It will affect me greatly – I will seriously have to consider whether I take on any more clients where permit parking is digital.”
The St Albans Times asked SADC whether they thought the new system was acceptable and what would happen for people who have no digital access – which is still common for some members of society, especially more mature people.
They declined to refer to the second part of our question but strategic director for community and place delivery Chris Traill said: “Under the virtual permit system, the cost of a visitor parking remains unchanged at £1.75 per visit, covering the whole restriction period.
“This is a considerable discount on the cost of public on-street parking which is £2 per hour, so is good value for money.
“A visitor permit is not transferable to different vehicles and that rule also remains unchanged. Our terms and conditions as well as charges are benchmarked against neighbouring councils and are in line with them.
“We are aware that some residents were on occasions unwittingly using the visitor permit scratch cards on more than one vehicle during the course of a day.
“This is not permitted and the instructions for use of the permit outlines one permit per parking period.”
Come on St Albans district council – you haven’t even acknowledged that an online system is not accessible for some people! The complete lack of flexibility is also unlikely to have any major impact on council coffers, but for residents struggling during a cost-of-living crisis it will hit them hard.
