A resident of a development near Brunel Way says she has been issued a ticket for parking in her own space. Lois Wentworth, who lives in Paxton Drive, described the rules as a 'shambles'' and doesn’t believe she should be fined £100 for parking in her designated space because the rules are 'confusing'.
Since the new rules were first introduced in the autumn, Ms Wentworth has continued to park her car in the space that is allocated to her flat as a private tenant, but the ticket she was issued in the first week of January was because she was not displaying a residents' permit.
She told Bristol Live: “We've never had to display a permit permanently before”. Ms Wentworth said she wasn’t aware from the communications that have been sent to residents that it was even required.
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Paxton Drive is a private road flanked by several three to five-storey residential blocks just off the A370. Two of the buildings are owned by Curo, a not-for-profit housing association based in Bath, with leaseholders, shared ownership and social tenants. The management company responsible for the entire site is Remus.
While some people living on Paxton Drive have designated parking spaces, others use unassigned Housing Association residents' bays and general-use visitor bays.
Initially, the car park was unregulated, but several years ago, Remus handed the car park’s management to enforcement company New Generation before switching to Link this year.
Ms Wentworth lives in a Curo block but is a private tenant. Since November, she has received five different letters from Link, Curo and Remus, all attempting to explain the new system and how it applies to different parts of the car park.
When one letter referred to the permit needing to be displayed for HA residents without an explanation of the abbreviated term, Ms Wentworth said she didn’t realise what it meant or that it was applicable to her situation.
She said of trying to contact Curo and Remus: “They just seem to be washing their hands of any accountability. I've said to them that they haven't explicitly spelt out in any of their letters what the rules are for allocated parking. And they just say, ‘Oh, well, if you take this bit of that letter, and this bit of that letter, along with the terms and conditions for a parking permit, it's obvious, and it’s obvious that stands for that HA stand for Housing Association'.
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“They've been very, very deliberate about not accepting any accountability, not apologising, and not admitting that the rules have been confusing or residents, or admitting that this whole entire thing has been a shambles.”
Ms Wentworth says she thinks the system needs an overhaul, as currently the permits all show each resident's address, something she says not comfortable having out on display at all times.
She said: “I don't have any faith that they know what they're doing, or they would have been able to implement something that actually worked at this point. I’m almost at a loss for words for how badly it’s been managed.
“The fines are a huge amount of money, and there are people who live in this street that are really struggling for money. It’s really not fair.
"They're refusing to help anyone who says that they don't understand the rules and trying to say that they've done a good job of implementing these rules when they haven't. I don't think it's very fair that residents should have to pay the price."
A spokesperson for Link said: “The only parties who claim to have any issues are residents who reside in the Housing Association blocks that are managed by Curo. Curo has confirmed that its residents have been issued all permits and have been made aware of the terms of parking.
“If residents choose to park in breach of the terms of parking, then a charge will be issued. We are aware that some residents have multiple vehicles but can only park one within the terms of parking. Vehicles parking in other residents' bays and in a manner that disrupted others is why we were instructed."
Bristol Live has reached out to both Curo and Remus for comment.
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