Fine made me see red

Published: 9 June, 2011

• I HAVE just paid Camden Council a £40 parking fine. 

Not for the first time, I’m human and I make mistakes, and I certainly don’t expect special treatment as a councillor if I get it wrong. But this time I saw red.

For many years I’ve renewed my annual residents’ parking permit on time, helped by a reminder letter or email from the council.

This year something went wrong with the Camden system. I didn’t receive a reminder letter and I’ve been told there was a computer malfunction which meant that residents who have asked to be sent renewal email reminders didn’t receive them as they should have done between March 27 and April 11. 

I’ve been apolo­getically told I was one of those, but that nevertheless the fine has to be paid.

I accept that ultimately the “responsibility for the renewal of parking permits rests with the permit holder” as the parking service tells me. 

However, if a permit holder has been used to  a reliable system of reminders that has functioned well for years, and has used that to assist them in discharging that responsibility, it seems harsh for Camden to insist that the permit holder should be penalised if the system fails. 

I was proud that the partnership administration I led in Camden introduced many changes to make the parking system fairer. During that time I signed many letters to residents telling them about the advantages of signing up for email alerts and reminders as a way of making sure they didn’t get caught out. Those reassurances sound pretty hollow now.

It feels as if the Labour administration is once more out to “get” motorists who make honest mistakes – and this just reinforces the comment I often hear that “if Camden make a mistake they just say they are sorry, but when I make a mistake I get fined”.

I hope that the cabinet member responsible for parking will think again about getting this balance right.

Cllr Keith Moffitt
Leader, Camden Liberal Democrats