Oh, the joys of owning a vehicle in central London. All ok if all the paperwork and bureaucratic hoops have been dealt with. It’s nice to arrive back from an away trip, back into the middle of the smoke and know there’s always a space to park. A bit like someone saving the seat for you. It all costs of course. A CC residents discount needs a fee. Then each journey is recorded by ANPR and the fee is taken automatically from the bank acc. The residents parking fee is eye watering but as I said, a comfort to know I have a piece of kerb waiting. The trouble is everything is handled by Transport for London and I’m afraid me and that organisation have a relationship that is like my ex marriage. I had a duty to keep it going as long as possible…but it ain’t easy. Eg.On Friday I had an email informing me with no warning, my cc residents discount had expired. Hadn’t realised so immediately went online to sort things out. Couldn’t even log in to my account! I was unsuccessful on Saturday so went off to Brands Hatch on Sunday and used the vehicle again on Monday. By now I’m getting a bit twitchy as it’s £15 Mon to Sun 07.00 to 22.00 with only three days to pay and £180 penalty for each unpaid day. Frantically trying to sort things out on line yesterday but even with my sons help, who’s a web designer I was frustrated. Today, Tuesday, I got through on the phone but four different operators gave me four different instructions “where you need to be” The fifth phone call was to actually pay the £10 residents discount fee that all this was about. Now they tell me I have to pay the full £15 per day each time I use it until they approve my renewal application which could take ten days! See you next year! Rant over
