Camden has been postponing the public engagement part of its parking review – it was supposed to have happened in March, now apparently it wil be in May. Camden will be seeking residents’ views on parking zone days and hours of control and pay & display maximum stays. However, many other parking changes have been made already, without consultation. Here’s an overview of the major changes implemented in April. The full details are available on Camden’s parking pages.

None of these address the concerns local businesses have in West Hampstead about the lack of short-term parking in the area to attract customers during the week.

Resident parking permits

• Residents with the lowest polluting vehicles that fall under tariff 1 will pay slightly less but the price has risen for other tariffs, with the largest increase for those with the largest and most polluting vehicles.
• A free annual car club membership and £50 worth of drive hours for the first 150 residents willing to give up their resident permit.
• A £10 supplement introduced for diesel vehicle owners.
• Classic car owners will no longer be eligible for a free resident permit.
• A £50 and £75 charge introduced for registering a 2nd or 3rd vehicle to a resident permit.
• Persistent evaders (someone with three or more unpaid parking tickets beyond the appeal stage) will not be able to apply for a 6 month or annual resident permit.
• The discount for electric car owners has been retained and will now also apply to electric motorcycle owners.
• Renewably sourced electric vehicle owners will no longer be eligible for a free resident permit

Resident visitor permits

• The tiered pricing system is being replaced with a flat rate charge of 90p per hour.
• The charge for disabled people and the elderly (over 75) falls to 45p per hour.
• Residents can now buy their full annual allocation in one go if they wish, rather than having to buy visitor permits every three months.
• We will no longer sell the 30 minute visitor permits when an alternative electronic visitor permit system is ready.

Pay & Display parking

• Camden is no longer enforcing meter feeding contraventions meaning that customers can now top up their parking session.
• Electric vehicle owners will no longer be able to apply for the pay & display permit

Business permits

• Camden is increasing the price of business scheme A and B annual permits to £290.
• A 75% permit discount has been introduced for businesses with electric and bio methane vehicles.
• Applicants will be asked to supply proof that the vehicle is insured for business purposes (where a permit is being requested on the basis that there is an operational need for a vehicle for the viability of the business).
• The price for installing a dedicated bay on-street for business scheme A first time applicants has been increased to £1,689.71.
• We are proposing to convert resident bays to permit bays in four zones which will give business permit holders greater flexibility when parking.

Business visitor vouchers

• The tiered pricing system is being replaced with a flat rate charge of £2.50 per hour.
• Restrictions that prevent businesses in certain streets from applying for business visitor vouchers will be removed.
• The all day business visitor voucher will no longer be available.

Parking permission

• We are merging the current Permission to Park and Dispensation to Wait into one product that will allow tradespeople to park in permit bays or on a single yellow line.
• We have reduced the daily charge for a parking permission to £30.
• Parking permissions for funerals and weddings will remain free of charge.