Perry parked parking changes to boost fellow Tory Philp – Inside Croydon

Volunteers from the borough’s hard-pressed residents’ associations were given less than six hours’ notice of stopping parking meters in Croydon.
By JEREMY CLACKSON, Motor Correspondent

No alternative: The parking meters were all turned off today with less than six hours notice to the public

In the latest controversial move by Jason Perry, the borough’s Tory mayor, Croydon Council shut down hundreds of parking meters today, forcing drivers to download the RingGo app on their mobile phones or else face a walk on the streets in the hope of find a store that offers online payment facilities.

The big blackout was due to take place last month but was delayed by an intervention by Tory Perry to try to avoid any antipathy among Croydon South voters and risk Chris Philp’s MP seat at the General Election.

In the end, Philp scraped home by just over 2,000 votes, but it could be the taxpayers of Croydon Council who end up picking up the tab for this party political game by Perry.

The council’s narrative is that they need to shut down the parking meters because they run on outdated 3G technology. The real reason is that the new system will help the cash-strapped council pocket even more in parking fees.

The move went ahead despite generally negative responses from residents to public consultations. Older drivers and people who simply don’t want to be forced to be monitored by a third-party smartphone app have been ignored by Perry (slogan: “I’m listening”) and his council.

Late notification: the letter from the council’s six-figure boss, Jayne Rusbatch, circulated to residents’ associations just hours before the shutdown.

At least now council officials are admitting that using RingGo may incur additional charges for drivers, after poor Perry and his councilors spent months denying that this was the case.

There is more than a sense, too, that after delaying the passage, it is now being implemented in a disorganized rush. The residents’ associations in the neighborhood received an e-mail last night, at 6:15 p.m., announcing the parking meter shutdown. today.

The email was issued by the council’s head of highways and parking, Jayne Rusbatch.

Or, as she was now called by volunteer resident officials, whose patience had been tested once too often: ‘Jayne Rushed-batch’, as she was expected to deliver the council’s messages to thousands of local members.

“Employees of the professional council, some of whom are paid six-figure salaries, are full-time employees,” said an RA official.

“We are not and we do our resident association work in our spare time. Sending a letter like this without notice is unacceptable and shows the arrogance with which the council views the residents they are supposed to serve.

“This ‘Jayne Rushed batch’ caused me to change my plans for Monday night as I had to put her announcement on short notice to our members.

“I hope nobody gets caught with a £65 fine tomorrow or in the coming days simply because the council switched to the system none of our residents wanted and they don’t have the smartphone app yet.”

Under the new system, drivers must book with RingGo even if they use a district centre’s free parking period.

New parking charges were introduced on July 16 – with massive price increases for people driving electric vehicles after Perry, the borough’s pro-pollution mayor, slashed the discount which had been introduced to help reduce the borough’s carbon emissions .

“This change is more like Perry being petty and petulant, a bad loser … a bastard,” according to a Katharine Street source.

“The mayor ran a campaign on Facebook against ULEZ. Now he has overseen the change to parking charges in the borough, which penalizes drivers who use zero-emission vehicles.”

In her email last night, the Rushed-batch council official wrote: “From tomorrow, Tuesday 23 July 2024, we will be shutting down pay and display machines in local and district centers where we have free one-hour machines. Cars in Croydon town center are already stopped.”

And Rushed-batch continued: “The council’s new parking charges offer a balanced approach to parking, taking all types of vehicles into account, while recognizing the impact of vehicles on the environment and retaining emissions-based parking charges for on-street parking. With the 2019 fleet change, the uptake of electric vehicles has increased and as such the council has reviewed the discount offer for this type of vehicle.”

In a letter that was attached to the Rushed-batch email, she wrote: “Although the council does not charge for using RingGo, some default settings may mean you pay a small fee to RingGo for reminders.” Thus contradicting what Perry and members of his council cabinet initially claimed existed Not additional charges.

“These notifications can easily be turned off in the app settings,” the local bureaucrat advised in his letter.

For those without a smartphone, parking sessions can still be secured over the phone by calling 020 3046 0010 – an additional facility that was not available during the trial period.

“We understand that change can be difficult, but please be assured that we are making every effort to ensure that the transition to mobile pay parking is as smooth as possible,” wrote the council official who had just given thousands of residents of the neighborhood more a little after six hours before the big stop.

That letter from Rushed-batch was also dated July 22, although it referred to the removal of some of the parking meters and the stoppage from July 13 – nine days earlier.

larger slice: Mayor Jason Perry’s parking fees could increase costs for drivers

But all this could have happened before the end of June, had it not been for political considerations surrounding the election.

Sources at Fisher’s Folly claim that delaying the crossing and removing the parking meters was done after the Tory mayor intervened because Perry was “concerned about the negative impact the parking changes could have on Philp’s cause”.

They say work on the switch was supposed to start on Monday, June 24, but Perry pulled the plug the Friday before.

“Someone in the Tory Quarter must have thought that the hugely unpopular changes to the local parking scheme might not go down too well with the voting public and ordered the Mayor to do what he could.”

Council sources suggest there could be significant additional costs as a result.

There is almost 700 meters of parking in Croydon. The council had a contract with a company called Flowbird to provide the network and software for the machines. Contract expires – believed to end on June 30. “It had to be extended to accommodate the delay,” according to our sources.

Croydon’s Tories, still with one MP, will be delighted with the final result.

Read more: Perry sends cabinet proposal for workplace parking fees
Read more: MP calls on Met to investigate Tory ‘vile scum’ groups
Read more: Perry should apologize for anti-ULEZ Facebook group, MP says
Read more: Perry stops parking cars in the downtown pedestrian zone

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