A parking permit amnesty is starting in Brighton and Hove on Monday (1 August) after a sample audit suggested people were using permits that they should have given back.
Brighton and Hove City Council said: “Residents in possession of parking permits for zones where they no longer live are invited to hand them in.
“The council is running a permit ‘amnesty’ throughout August where people with permits who are not entitled to them can hand them in for cancellation with no questions asked.
“Residents can either post the permit back to the council or hand it in to parking services staff in the customer service centre at Hove Town Hall where there is also a special permit drop box.
“Parking permits state that if a resident moves out of the parking zone for which they have a permit, they must surrender it.
“It is fraud to use any kind of parking permit that you are not entitled to.
“A sample audit in the city showed that around 2 per cent of permits in circulation are possibly fraudulent, which is a potential cost to the council of around £190,000.”
Councillor Gill Mitchell, who chairs the council’s environment, transport and sustainability committee, said: “Brighton and Hove has had considerable success in dealing with Blue Badge fraud and we are keen to see that other types of parking permits are not being misused.
“We have 27,000 resident permits on issue so making sure that they are going to the right people will ensure residents can park more easily near to their homes and will free up waiting lists.”
Anyone found using a permit fraudulently after the month-long amnesty ends could face prosecution. The council said that it was continuing to cross-check records. And from September it will introduce automatic online checks.
So if these people have paid surely they should get a rebate when handing them back?The Council has already received the income so are not losing anything they are just being greedy.
Given that the parking department has so few admin staff that they can’t clear their current backlog of parking ticket appeals and have, for months, been revoking any tickets which are challenged, the claim that they’re cross-checking owner’s records seems pretty unlikely. I think I’ll risk it.
And excuse me for being confused but if you move zones but it takes 3 months to get a new permit , where are you meant to park your car?