This page will be updated as we find out more information – do you have any?
One of the main issues with the scheme is the ‘discounted’ parking (See FAQ);
“For preferential parking rates – Remember to take your HillingdonFirst card with you and before you put your money into the parking machine, press the yellow button and touch your card as shown on the machine.”
“What do I do to get discounted parking? – Simply press the yellow button and touch your card on the picture of HillingdonFirst on the parking machine.”
Besides the obvious annoyance of now being forced to carry a card if you wanted discounted rates, they are not actually discounted! Along with the new installation of car parking meters and the introduction of our new card, we also got a price increase in parking rates. The rate for parking has doubled whilst a new tier, hillingdon first card holders, has been added which is, you got it, exactly the same as it was before. How exactly is that discounted and a benefit for Hillingdon Residents?
If you can drive, your long term parking rate has just doubled. HillingdonFirst cards are only going to 18s and over, sorry about that.
The scheme has been promoted in the hillingdon magazine “People” has being a great boost for Hillingdon Businesses (supposedly by boosting local trade), but whilst this has an outside chance of being true, we fail to see how this could happen in Eastcote or Ruislip or anywhere else that borders onto other councils. Why would someone visiting Pinner (Harrow) drive that extra mile now and pay twice the fee to park in Eastcote? Why alienate potential customers? Our residents are going to go elsewhere anyhow as, remember, the discount isnt a discount so its not keeping people here to shop. See our Business Page for more info.
When a card is used in a machine, the system will store, amongst other things, the parking meter ID and the time/date. This information will be stored for 6 years. From the FOI request you will see that this is under the pretense of preventing abuse to the scheme. What they mean is that you cannot leave your card in the office and let anyone pop in, grab it, and then use it and drop it back for the next person. This makes perfect sense, except that the card stores the last use information as well. Why is 6 years worth of data about your parking habits needed if the machine itself can check when it was last used? What additional abuses are they talking about? Oh, and of course, they say its anonymous – take a look at our Privacy Page for some arguments about that.
Cost
There is a current FOI request to find out how much this whole new meter scheme has actually cost. We will update when we find ot.
July 25, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Swiped card and paid £1 discounted rate for 2 hours parking- machine failed to accept coin which was put back into machine which then issued ticket for 1 hr – this is not any option discounted or not on the machine- stupidly I did not check and was booked for parking at 1.5 hrs.
Will never use discounted rate again or bloody card as this will cost me £60 as I am sure I will not win appeal.
Definately residents last in Hillingdon!