What is HillingdonFirst?
Posted by: hillingdonfirst on: May 7, 2009
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HillingdonFirst is an ID Card Privilege Card that will affect upto 243,000 residents based on a consultation of ~150 (which is not available). It will keep a log, for 6 years, of every time and place you park, when you visit the council gym or dump and has some dodgy future uses.
Coming June 15th.
Quick Update & Good News!
Posted by: hillingdonfirst on: October 4, 2009
Over the last few months things have stabilised a bit – we are still waiting on Hillingdon to answer a fair few FOI requests (see right panel). There appear to be lots of old machines still sitting in the ground next to the new machines, many without signs or covers so confusing matters still. Also, on more than one occasion I have been approached by a parking attendant telling me how to use the machine – I imagine this is for a reason (its confusing!).
Good News though! Over at the Eastbury Residents blog, they tell of two local businesses who were hillingdonfirst signups, but have now pulled out;
In a significant development two local businesses have indicated their intention to withdraw from the HillingdonFirst scheme. Sharmans Pharmacy and Carter Chemist and Ability have stated that it was never their intention to disadvantage residents of Eastbury and that they support the ERA’s campaign to fight for equality for all residents of Northwood.
The businesses wish it to be known that all their offers are available to all their customers and not just to holders of the HillingdonFirst card.
There you go, the first businesses to go public (I know of some more, but they are waiting to the end of the year). Let’s support these two shops who make everyone welcome, not just card carrying hillingdon citizens residents.
“You couldn’t make it up”
Posted by: hillingdonfirst on: July 17, 2009
Apologies for the long delay in posting, I’ve been very busy.
I visited the Harefield dump this week for the first time (it’s our local) and taking my wife’s card with me (warning: this is against the terms & conditions of use! – but I don’t have a card yet so ?).
It wasn’t long ago that I last visited the site and it’s quite a bit different. Normally you would just drive in when there is a space, dump your stuff and leave. They now have two lanes, one for HillingdonFirst card holders and one for those who are not. As you can see from the pic, every single car in the queue was a card holder and actually I’ve never seen it so busy. Whilst I was waiting, I noticed two separate Land Rover type cars go in via the waybridge (too tall for the barriers). One stopped and spoke with the woman at the desk but no card was shown and they just went straight in.
Entering Harefield.
The whole thing felt somewhat pathetic, there is a barrier which is linked to the machines which amusingly still have the [P] car parking sign on the side. You use the machine just like you would when parking and even get a ticket to put on the dashboard, it is literally the same thing but with a barrier attached. The signs were attached with cable ties and poorly made, so I imagine they will need replacing in a few months time. It really felt that the whole thing had been poorly designed and almost as a last minute thing.
Interestingly, both lanes accept the card (the attendants were asking people to move across), so why the council felt it necessary to have a separate lane for HillingdonFirst residents is strange – were they really expecting that many out of borough users to pay a £10 fee? I have a feeling that will have to change, just put a sign up and let people use either lane, it makes no sense whatsoever.
Attendants
When you finally got to the machine, there was a guy standing there taking the card from us and pressing the yellow button and swiping on our behalf – the machine is not well placed which doesn’t help (its a parking meter, so designed for standing users – and its raised), but he said that the machines were causing people difficulties and hence the queue.
Once we had the ‘ticket’ the guy said “here’s you parking ticket.. yeah I know, you couldn’t make it up”, which seems to be the general consensus on the scheme.
It did occur to me whilst sitting in the queue, that if less people are using the dump I can assume that staff levels will be cut, or will they be reassigned to help confused residents at the barriers?
Complete Chaos!
Posted by: hillingdonfirst on: June 29, 2009
The roll out of HillingdonFirst continues …
We have had reports of complete chaos at many car parks with parkers not understanding how to use the machine, not knowing about the scheme, not having a card and more worrying, a lot of machines not working.
If you have pictures of the faulty machines or the chaos caused by them, please send them over to us.
Over on the great hillingdonchat.com website (frequented by Hillingdon Councillors) there are more reports of chaos in the posting of cards.
Many cards have had to be returned to the civic centre as they were incorrectly addressed. All the flat numbers were missing on my estate, and I hear that the problem is boroughwide. Our postman has already returned hundreds, and if this is the same across the borough there are probably thousands of returned cards sitting in the civic centre mailroom.
Council Tax and Library records were used, so there are a large number of residents who will not get a card.
and
Sunshine wrote:
I got one but my husband didn’t. I entered his details online and his new card arrived yesterday (doesn’t take too long)A guy I work with said his 9 year old daughter got one
Oyster Card Problems
Posted by: hillingdonfirst on: June 19, 2009
This email came in yesterday:
I received my HillingdonFirst card earlier this week, and since it replaces the Hillingdon Library card, I put it into my wallet in the Library card’s place.While the HF card is in my wallet, Oyster card readers cannot read my Oyster card. I tried four different gates and two different ticket machines. Pressing just my Oyster and HF cards against the yellow Oyster reader also prevents the Oyster card from being read – even out of my wallet. The gates just say “Seek Assistance”, while the ticket machine says “Your Oyster Card has not been initialised for Prestige”.
This makes sense, LASSeO (the standard of the card) uses the same system that Oyster does. If you look at the Future Uses you can see that there are plans to use the scheme to replace the Oyster card (much in the same way that Barclaycard Wave has Oyster built in).
Is anyone else having this problem? If so, please email hillingdonfirst@hotmail.co.uk
Business Discounts
Posted by: hillingdonfirst on: June 17, 2009
With the cards coming in the post this week, its a good time to discuss the discount scheme for shoppers (a way of softening up the residents). The scheme is voluntary and isn’t actually just a discount, but any additional benefit (for example, giving something away), it just sounds better when they call things a discount (as we have seen with parking).
The list of 335 businesses is up on the web now (click here). With businesses having so much trouble at the moment, it makes sense that they would want as much promotion and extra income as possible.
Unfortunately, judging by the responses we got from a survey of Bracknells e+ Business members (on which Hillingdon’s is based on) it just won’t work. Here are three responses (all responses were negative about the scheme).
Sorry I don’t think this is working for us. We did have a sticker in the window prior to it peeling off.
> 5. Do you think the e+ card is 'working' for you? (Please give details). IT HELPS US IN THE WAY THAT IT GIVES US FREE ADVERTISING BUT APPART FROM THAT NOT MUCH AT ALL> 6. Any other comments? HOW MANY DO ACTUALLY USE THE CARD IN THE TOWN CENTRE WITH THE TRADERS TO GET A DISCOUNT AND IS IT COST EFFECTIVE OVERALL?
I'm sorry to say that the e+ card has had no effect on us whatsoever, no-one has used it,no-one has mentioned it. Its not working for us.
If you find a business which you plan on using, do them a favour and don’t use your card – free advertising is great for business but giving discounts and benefits in a recession isn’t.
