We have had enquiries from two people about current batches of car parking permits being dated 2016/2017/2018. This means that the permits themselves expire in 10 months, and residents will need to apply again at Christmas.
Here is the response from the County Council’s Parking team.
Visitor permits dated 2018,2019 & 2020 are in production as we speak.
The first batch of 25 issued from the existing stock 2016, 2017 & 2018 are for 6 months therefore should the resident apply for their second allocation ( Aug/Sept time) they will be issued permits from our new stock.
Of course there may be some residents that find 25 are enough to cover them for a full year therefore in this instance any returned permits will be replaced. Replacing permits will strictly apply to those who have not obtained a second allocation during their permit year.
We have asked for better information on the website. It seems strange that Resident Parking Zone parking permits stretch from year to year, but visitors’ permits have a cut off date. We have asked for parking permits to be colour coded to aid enforcement officers but have not yet received a response.
UPDATE
We learn that the replacement of unused visitor permits is not advertised. Why not?
It is very uncommon that a resident returns the unused/expired permits and it is not advertised. Residents over the age of 70 ( and who qualify for their second set free of charge) should be encouraged to apply for this second set instead of attempting to replace existing permits.
We asked about this – we manage on our joint allocation, but its useful to have been able to carry them over (that’s a benefit of them having a three year eligibility). We intend to have visitors in January and February next year before we are eligible to apply for free permits again and so we asked them what to do.
They replied:
You can use your allocation of visitors permits until the 31/12/2018.
An ones you have left over you can post them back to the residential parking team and we can swap them over.
Which isn’t quite the same process as you’ve been told. Clearly it was too complex for the County to have noticed that they’d need 2019 permits before they re-issued these which can only be used for 2018.
Bit concerned that different people have been given different advice on this, we shall re-check but the response was from a senior officer in the Parking team
Ruth – What was the Parking Shop advised that they do not replace unused visitor permits, when I asked in 2013. I wonder when they changed their minds.
They are clearly not keen on the idea because they’re not advertising it but the new advice should be accurate, it came from a senior officer.
I wish I’d known this yesterday when I went to use mine and found they all expired in 2017, even though I only received them at the beginning of 2017. They were despatched to recycling yesterday as waste paper!