A woman has spoken about her battle to renew her resident’s parking permit because the council’s computer system did not recognise her name.
Lam Man Shan Sally has had a Brighton and Hove City Council “zone J” parking permit in her full name for some years.
All her identity documents and council tax are in her full name and for the past three years she has not had any problems renewing the permit.
But this year her application was rejected twice. Mrs Lam said: “My parking permit expired on (Tuesday) 20 August so I made the payment and applied for renewal on (Tuesday) 13 August.
“By (Friday) 30 August, I was notified that my renewal application was rejected because my name did not match their system.
“I’ve been living at the same address in Brighton for over three years and I’ve always registered for council tax accounts, parking permits, etc, under my full name.
“After reviewing my records, I found everything was registered under my full name.
“I reflected this to the organization and provided the passport, driving licence and council tax billing address as evidence to prove that I have always used my full name.
“After this proof, I received an email confirming that my name in the system matches my passport – even though it has always been the same.”
Mrs Lam then reapplied to renew her parking permit but her application was rejected again – and even though she received visitor permits without any issues.
She said: “I have successfully renewed my parking permit and bought visitor permits multiple times.
“This time, however, I am deeply troubled. Every day, I fear receiving a penalty charge notice and constantly check if a parking officer is issuing a ticket.
“This endless worry is overwhelming and I don’t know when it will end.”
Even though all the details on Mrs Lam’s permit and her documents matched, the issue appeared to be with her name on the council’s “MyAccount” system which listed her as “Sally Lam”.
Councillor Trevor Muten, the cabinet member for transport, parking and the public realm, said: “It is important residents register their MyAccount with the same name they use on the official documents they provide.
“Our old system did not pick up on inconsistencies. The system we now use will do.
“This is partly to prevent residents from being able to use official documentation to register multiple different accounts with slight name variations and therefore access more permits than they are entitled to.
“We have discussed with the resident how they should change their MyAccount profile name so this matches the name on the documents they have provided. Once done, they will then be able to renew their permit.
“We will always try to help navigate this process and would recommend anyone experiencing problems call our customer service line on 01273 296622 and someone can talk them through the process.
“If the resident gets in touch with our team via the number above, someone will be able to help with their renewal.”
At the third attempt, after changing her name on “MyAccount”, Mrs Lam has renewed her permit.
The permit renewal website is even worse than last year, if that’s possible. Yesterday I renewed my permit and it took over half an hour online. Multiple website crashes. Extremely slow. Even though it tells you the price of your permit right at the start, it then makes you “look up your permit price” again later – and it doesn’t work properly. It took 8 attempts for it to look it up correctly (otherwise you have to start again). An absolute joke of a website from a joke of a council.
Another sign that Labour councillors are living up to their election manifesto pledge:
“Labour will run a council that is accessible, providing a more personal service to our residents, including clearer online information and a face-to-face service with staff based in council offices across the city.”
BHCC website in general would benefit from an overhaul.
There are plenty of outdated information, dead links, not many accessibility options, weak GUI and design, and it is not very practical or functional in various sections.
Another problem is that the process requires you to up load photos of your old permit cut into pieces but it will only accept very small file sizes. A standard iPhone photo is too large. You then have to call the office and request a link such that you can upload via a different system. I was informed that lots of people end up doing this. So much for efficiency! It is unnecessarily time consuming both for customers and staff.
Why don’t you just reduce the size of the photo yourself?
To be fair, whilst I would certainly be capable of that, there are many out there who would not. Hallmark of a well designed website is in the simplicity of use.
Considering the image would likely only be temporary for the purposes of processing the application, a limited file size upload is a great example of a poor design.
I did try but that option does not appear to be available in settings on my phone. The default size is not excessively large.
I used to have a permit for parking in the roads around my office, as I am on call a lot throughout the day, needing to get anywhere over Sussex, Kent and Surrey without notice, so one year I tried to renew my parking permit, probably at the beginning of Covid, which turned out to be the busiest period I have ever known for my work, due to the work I do.
In the end I just gave up trying and rented a space from a nearby business instead.
You’d think that the council would want to aid business in the city, but it’s the opposite.
We have morons in these departments that have no initiative, no ability to think for themselves, no intellect at all, and were simply… closed. What a dull life it must be to be a council staff zombie.
Sound like the council owe her a free parking permit if she doesn’t exist according to them.
Sounds like there may of potentially been some usage of her name to cheat the system and gain multiple permits, based on the explanation given?
Hardly Benjamin, as all her other stuff is in the same name. She’s renewed parking permits before, no problem.
What’s yours?!
I think at the council it’s still 1975. There’ll be some middle-aged bloke that lives with his mother, the office joker, like Colin Hunt from The Fast Show.
Only to be expected. The Transport department are utterly hopeless!
I always enjoy submitting proof of address to the council for my parking permit, the document in question is my council tax bill. Beggars belief how they couldn’t just connect the dots themselves…
It’s part of a larger challenge I would put to the council. Departments within the council could be doing more to work together better.
That could be through connected IT systems and databases and breaking down silo-working. For example, the new cabinet structure starts to do this, putting health and housing together, because they have a lot of overlap.
It’s frightening that in a dangerous world of hi-tech fraud and a constant threat of terrorism and public attacks, world migration, people trafficking and organised crime, that the running of our city with its yearly budget of £924.2 million, is managed by inept underachievers who haven’t even the intuitive ability to administer a parking permit, just because of an unusual name with too many letters.
Seems to me that it’s just a matter of time before something really catastrophic comes down on us all. We give our trust in everything to those least fit to deal with it. This world is insane. One day we will pay a heavy price for allowing this ridiculous Local Government system to continue.