We live in a parking blackspot in Basingstoke. We have lived here for over 30 years and parking has become a nightmare for my husband and myself. If we drive anywhere during the day we have to make sure we return by 4.00pm at the latest and not at all at weekends or we are unable to park. It probably sounds over the top but it is having an effect on our lives. We have a residential parking permit for our car and a visitors permit, which is pointless because we can never invite visitors because they cannot park. It would seem that the "visitors" permit has become a 2nd car permit. Many cars sit in the street, day after day displaying the visitors permit, some are sellotaped to the dashboard. I have contacted the council for a definition of "visitor" but was sent a generic letter giving details of the permit with costs and application form. Is there anything we can do other than move house?

Hello CAG members I have recently had a new permit system put in place at my place of residents. I sent an email to apply for permits to both my company and private vehicle back in September 2015, I had a response saying that they will send them out. I did not receive them and I should have chased this up but I'm a busy man and work away from home a lot. It weren't until December when I got back from work that I found a PCN on my car, I sent an email to ask where my permits are and they sent me an email saying they will send them out but whilst I was waiting I received another PCN at 11pm that evening on my company vehicle. I have sent a letter to CPM and they refused my appeal and have told me to appeal through theIAS. So need to know..... do I have proper grounds to appeal? and What are theIAS like? I read some bad reviews about them and think they will side with CPM I refuse to pay this and I never will pay as its unfair!! Chris

Hey, I have moved into a new flat at the beginning of November, today have received a notice saying that parking permits will be coming into place on our car park (all of the car parks in the neighborhood, really!). I have two cars (one for me and one for my husband) as we both are courier drivers so we need them for work. Unfortunately we only received one resident permit, and one visitor permit, which is only valid for 12 days annually. I have called them, and have been told that they can't give us another resident permit, and I should just park 'elsewhere'. Well, there's no 'elsewhere' near us at all! Are they allowed to do that?

On Sunday 21 December 2014, I visited friends in Leeds. I parked, as suggested by my friend, in the courtyard of the block of flats in which he lives (ie private land). On returning to the car (roughly 60 to 90 minutes later), I found a note stuck to the windscreen. The note was a reasonable facsimile of a parking ticket - a yellow and black plasstic envelope containing a form headed "Penalty Charge Notice" - but issued by a private firm (City Permits) on private land. I admit that the car was parked on private land without authorisation, but there was plenty of space as there were very few cars there at the time and, in my judgement, no obstruction or damage was caused. The form states, "The penalty charge of £85 is payable within 28 days of this notice. A discounted sum of £60 wil be accepted in settlement of the charge if received within 14 days fromm the date of issues (sic)." There are the usual threats of tracking me down through the DVLA and court action if the charge remains unpaid. A slight complication is the fact that the car was on hire from a local car hire company with whom I would like to keep a good relationship. Advice as to how to deal with this, would be very much appreciiated.

Hi all, I wonder if anyone can help me? I was issued some visitor parking tickets by Newham council and which were Zone U and should have been Zone S- I was sent the wrong ones. I put one of these on my girlfriend's car when she came to visit me and she got a PCN, because the tickets were for the wrong Zone. I do not drive and it was the first time I was using one of these, so I expected the tickets to be correct as I gave the council my correct address Stratford that I needed the tickets for. Disgusted, I took all the remaining tickets to the local council office and they swapped these for the correct ones and also put in writng on the accompanying form that I had been issued the wrong tickets. I also explained about the PCN we had received and they reassured me that it was their fault and because of my appeal (which I had sent the very next day of the incident) I wouldn't have to pay. Lo and behold the council officer I saw informed me that it was not the ticket issuing officer at fault but the council had the Stratford area down as Zone U instead of Zone S! So when the issuing officer looked on the system to issue my tickets she issued them as Zone U and I and my girlfriend being novices at this didnt realise they were incorrect as I now know the hole punch next to the letter designates the zone they are valid for. Two days ago I received a letter from Newham council saying I would have to pay the penalty charge. Surely this is not right. The local council office were adamant I would not be charged. Do I have a case? Should I appeal again? Any help in this matter would be great!

Hi, My local council has started to charge £25 per parking permit as the road I live on is part of a residents parking permit scheme. Up until now the permits were free, the scheme was set up to allow residents to be able to park outside there homes as employees from a local bank were taking up many spaces. The council voted at cabinet to charge residents who were already part of a parking scheme in order to make some money and cover costs of administering the scheme. There was no consultation on this and the first residents knew about the charges was at the start of December when the council set letters asking for payment to issue the 2013 passes. Does anybody know if the council were legally obliged to issue a road traffic regulation order (TRO) before they made a change (i.e. starting to charge residents) to the existing parking scheme?

I am considering the purchase of a flat in the centre of Bath. I have been advised that the property does not come with the right to a residents parking permit, although all of the neighbouring properties do have this right. This seems to be a fundamentally inequitable situation. Can the council arbitrarily decide which residents of an area are entitled to parking permits? Is there any mechanism to challenge this? Thanks Bacon