Site icon Inside Croydon

Council ignores the public and rolls out cashless parking trials

insidecroydon

The generation of Croydon residents who have always thought RingGo was the drummer in The Beatles could be in for a nasty, and expensive, shock if they park their car in New Addington, Purley or Addiscombe come the new year, reports KEN LEE, our Town Hall correspondent

Despite hundreds of objections raised during and after a previous trial, Croydon Council is pushing ahead with the introduction of cashless parking in three more neighbourhoods – Purley, Addiscombe and New Addington – from next week, January 2.

Mayor Jason Perry claims to “listen to Croydon”, but he’s cocked a deaf ‘un as far as parking schemes are concerned, ignoring all the public complaints about being forced to use smartphone apps to pay fees during a previous test run in South Croydon.

And his council also left the announcement of their latest trials until the week before Christmas. There’s not as much as a word about these short-notice, quick-turnaround trials in the “news” section on the council’s own website today.

Fantasy: the cashless parking trial on Selsdon Road in South Croydon was successful, but only in terms that Croydon Council understands

Anyone from other parts of the borough driving to the trial areas in January could end up being hit with a massive parking fine, just because our cash-strapped council didn’t bother to publicise its imposition of these unpopular schemes.

Some businesses received letters, signed by “head of highways and parking” Jayne Rusbatch, and dated December 21 – just a day before the council was due to close down for the Christmas holidays.

In the letter, the increasingly ludicrous-sounding council said that cashless parking was part of its “ambitions for supporting the economic vibrancy of town centres and high streets”.

They also claimed that the schemes will somehow “improve” parking availability. This is to be achieved by reducing the one-hour free parking under current rules and replacing it with a 30-minute free parking period, which the council reckons will “encourage more turnover”. For that, read, “more fines and income”.

Motorists are being forced to use the RingGo smartphone parking app – even if they don’t own a smartphone or don’t want to share their personal data with an anonymous, third-party supplier.

The reality of all this gung-ho “vibrancy” bollocks is that the cash-strapped council is having to replace its pay-and-display machines, which rely on 3G connectivity which is being shut down by network providers. The council grumbles that the old machines present “increasing maintenance costs”.

Effectively handing the borough’s motorists’ personal and bank account details to RingGo is the cheapest and least troublesome solution for a local authority that lacks the means to deliver public services properly.

The trials in Purley, Addiscombe and New Addington are to last only three weeks – since the decision to roll out cashless parking across the borough is already a done deal, it’s a wonder that they are bothering with a trial at all. It is notable that the three trials are not subject to any formal consultation.

Late notice: the council letter was only sent on the day before the offices closed for the Christmas break, giving businesses and the public no real chance to raise questions

Running all this for piss-poor Perry is his cabinet member for streets and environment, the ever-eager Scott Roche, a Tory Party uber-loyalist, whose day job is working for Conservative MP Paul Scully.

Roche will soon have to break cover on the mess that pro-motorist Perry has made of the council’s badly implemented cycle lanes and low-traffic neighbourhoods (or whatever they’ve been re-branded this week), following a rigged “public consultation”. The council can ill-afford to refund the grants it received from the Tory Government and TfL for the schemes.

There’s a persistent rumour in Fisher’s Folly that all the money received for the Purley to Croydon cycle lane has in any case already been spent, much of it squandered on paying contractors to remove the safety wands just days after they had been installed, in an effort to ensure that the scheme failed.

The council is already facing at least one hefty claim for compensation over the hazards created by removing the fluorescent wands.

So dealing with cashless parking issues swiftly in the New Year might be a bit of administrative expedience, at the inconvenience of residents and businesses in the trial areas.

“Cashless parking where drivers book time using their mobile phones or using the PayPoint facility in some shops, as an alternative system, will ensure the continued viability of the parking service,” the council claims.

Loyal Tory: Scott Roche is pushing through the unpopular cashless parking

The council’s lack of any real confidence in their trials operating smoothly is betrayed in its announcement which explains the January 2 start date as being, “So that this does not impact on businesses during the vital Christmas trading period…”.

If the system operated smoothly, you’d think there would be no possibility of any adverse “impact” on any business at any time of the year. One of the biggest objections to the scheme so far is that 30 minutes is not a long enough free parking period for anyone to carry out a shopping trip.

Among the other gems offered by the council as it rushes out the trial is the advice “to set up the app on your phone whilst at home”. What? You don’t think it’s a great idea to be using the phone while driving..?

The biggest, most obvious, shortcoming of the cashless system is that it automatically discriminates against those who do not have a mobile phone – the already digitally excluded older and poorer residents. There will also be a sizeable number of people who simply don’t want to have the bother, or intrusion, of another app just for the relatively simple function of parking their vehicle.

The council says, “Parking sessions can be booked with an old-style mobile phone by phoning 020 3046 0010 and confirming your details and the RingGo location code, which are indicated on signs.

“It is easier to register your details online first at myRingGo.co.uk/register to ensure that the parking session goes smoothly.

“Parking sessions can also be booked on a landline but there would be no guarantee that there is a parking space available when arriving in a street or car park.” So that’s a busted flush then.

There is an alternative – using PayPoint in nearby shops. If, that is, you can find a shop that operates the service. But again, this is nowhere near as straightforward as using a parking meter.

And, of course, according to the council, you can comment on the trials. Thing is, they are not describing it as a “consultation”, because that would get all official, and require a proper equalities assessment, measuring how the cashless system disadvantages the poor, many of whom will be from BAME communities, as well as older residents.

Any major changes to parking arrangements in Croydon should be subject to each area’s own individual consultations before coming into effect, using parking data gathered from the streets. How the council might manipulate this data before making it available to the public, they have never said.

But don’t worry! The council offers its main switchboard number to phone if you have “any questions”. Even though, for at least nine of the 12 days between the date of the council’s letter and the RingGo trial going live, the council’s offices are actually closed.

In extremis, you might try this email address – parking@croydon.gov.uk. But if you don’t have a smartphone, that’s probably not much use, either… And council staff probably won’t be answering many, if any, emails between now and 2024, either.

Read more: Perry’s latest money-making wheeze? Big Brother parking
Read more: Perry’s back-pedalling furiously on Boris-backed bike scheme
Read more: Tory minister is member of online group that celebrates vandals


Exit mobile version