Parking permits - 2 cars

I can’t decide if I’m confused or bemused by Lewisham parking permits.

" Residents with more than one vehicle

You can put up to two vehicles on your permit at no extra charge. However, at any one time only one vehicle can be parked and displaying the permit."

https://www.lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/parking/permits/Pages/resident-permits.aspx

Just so I’m clear, if I want to park 2 cars at the same time (which is most of the time) then I need 2 permits? Seems kind of daft to me. Why bother allowing 2 cars on a permit?

Also, surely the £120 should be more of an admin fee. I doubt many people have more than 2 cars, and especially as you do all the ‘admin’ yourself on the website, I think it would make sense to allow you to park a couple of cars for the price of a single permit.

Would make more sense to have first car free plus 10 visitor passes (as in Newham) and second car charged £120 and extra visitor tickets sold per 10 at £30.

All extras charged ie extra passes, moving lorry pass, skip etc charged for.

If admin is so costly for Lewisham perhsps they should get Newham to administer it for them, Outsourcing seems to be a trend?

The end result is of course that all roads become CPZ’s which solves a lot of issues previously mentioned on another post.
This may reduce the number of second cars, thus making roads safer, encouraging people to walk/cycle and reducing pollution.

Wow what a great solution!!

Ironically we do cycle almost everywhere. One car is used mainly for ‘big’ shopping trips at weekends, the other one is to teach the kids to drive.

I would mind less if the 1st car was free, or even if there was a small incremental fee for a second car. Charging twice for the same amount of DIY admin seems daft. I get that they have to run a website, pay for ‘parking attendants’ etc. Anyway it’s already outsourced.

And don’t get me started on ‘excise duty’ being based on engine size not miles travelled. They should just get rid of it and add a bit of tax onto petrol. There, now I did get started.

I think it more for those with 2 cars and one driveway … that way you don’t get penalised for having the wrong car parked on the road when the warden comes round.

It is an odd system where residents pay (often for a car that does very few miles) whereas vehicles that drive through the Borough on a daily basis pay nothing.

Well thanks to this odd system, I’ve just got a PCN. Changed cars and got rid of old one on same day as new one. Thought new one would replace old one on system by changing vehicle details. But instead just meant new car “didn’t have a valid parking permit”. Vexed beyond frustration!

Appeal. Worked for me when we changed cars as their system didn’t update immediately.

With the shortage of on-street parking in many areas and the general policy to discourage driving in London I am surprised that the Council is allowing more than one car per house. I would have expected parking permits for second cars to either be disallowed or charged at a substantially higher rate. If there is a genuine need for more cars in a household such as mobility / disability needs exceptions can be made for households with a disabled badge holder.

Well luckily there’s no shortage of parking on my street. My original issue was that if it’s truly an ‘admin fee’ then whether you have 1 or 2 cars is basically a dropdown on a webpage. Why charge you double.

The second car is a Mini that I’ve used to teach the kids to drive because I couldn’t get them insured on the ‘nice’ car.

Whilst I agree with your sentiment about fewer cars, I think offering better alternatives to cars is a better way forward than dictating how many cars people should unless they can afford off road parking space.

I suspect that charging you to own a car inside the South Circular will be how they enforce the Congestion Charge expansion i.e a London Vehicle Tax, but let’s not give them ideas.