It's Football Season again

I'm not a follower of football, it's an entire tide to life that just used to sweep me by. I now have to pay a bit more attention to it, if not my car gets towed away when Charlton play at home.

There's been a few matches now and I'm getting back into the swing of keeping an eye on what's happening.

However couldn't it be made easier?

I'm sure that Charlton used to pop a letter through local doors giving the dates of home matches, I certainly didn't get one this year. The little sign up by the station isn't much use as it's often only updated a few days before a match.

I'm lucky, I can get into the habit of checking on the internet for what's going on.

On that matter does anyone know of an online calendar in a format suitable for use in iCal on a Mac? At the moment watch the fixtures page and manually update my diary. Oh how easy it would be if they just offered one on the internet. Maybe I should suggest that to them.

As for last nights match well it all seemed rather subdued, perhaps it wasn't that important a game? I was pottering around at home and hardly noticed the fans coming or going. I've got to say they usually are very well behaved and no trouble at all.

Controlled Parking Zone Changes

Well the council have now deemed it fit to write letters to the residents of the area that will be affected by the changes to the parking zones.

It would have been nice if they'd written to us when the changes were first proposed rather than just tacking up a notice on a lamppost. It's as if the Council don't want the residents involved in their decision making process....

Anyway it's happening now, so what is it?

Well the existing Charlton and Westcombe parking zone is going to be split in two along the line of the A102 Blackwall Tunnel Southern Approach. Existing permits will be valid in both zones until they expire. They don't seem to say when the split will be made.

There's again reference to a number of free parking roads being made into permit parking ones but no mention of which ones and when. For that I guess you have to look back to that notice on that lamppost.

Still some communication's better than no communication.

I've got a parking ticket....

I discovered a parking ticket on my car which lead to a flurry of activity. My resident's parking permit had expired, I thought that it was running out soon but hadn't expected it to be dead already. I should have remembered that I got my first permit before I moved to my current home, so it doesn't expire on the anniversary of me moving here. Curses.

However I would have expected to receive a letter from the council reminding me that the permit was about to expire. In fact their web site says that they will (here).

I've had to put my hands up and pay the fine, after all my permit had expired. Still I can't help but feel a bit cheated that the Council didn't write to me first.

Parking Restriction Changes

I don't want to seem to be hard on Greenwich Council, I really don't, but sometimes they make it oh so very hard to be nice about them.

They're introducing changes to the parking restrictions in my area. The council know that live in one of the affected roads as I pay them an awful lot of council tax for the "privilege". They also know that I've got a car as I've got a residents parking permit.

So how did I find out about these changes? Did they write to me personally? Perhaps a mass mailshot dropped though my door?

No.

They tacked up a notice on a lampost.

Thanks.

Basically the effect to me is going to be that when I visit a friend near Maze Hill I won't be able to leave my car there overnight, it's going to be a different zone. That's kind of fair, the zone I'm in (CW) is huge.

What will have an impact is that they're taking away the free parking bays around me, so if someone wants to visit me and have their car here during the permit hours (Mon to Saturday until about 6.30pm) I'll need some visitors permits. Which of course the council charge for. Well I think that they charge for them, I just tried to search their web site to check but the search is broken. See! They seem to make every effort to be rubbish.

The notice was put up on the 9th of May and you've only got until the 30th to object. The stealth tactic of trying hard not to tell the residents what's happening might actually work.

On the subject of parking I've just seen this question on the council's web site, "what if I need a courtesy or a ‘hire’ car?" Click here for the full answer but in brief until you've arranged a temporary permit "you need to make alternative parking arrangements." So if my car breaks down and I get a courtesy car when do I put it until the ever so efficient parking people give me a new permit? They've just taken all the free parking away so I think I'm stuck.

Thanks, again.

Click on the image below to view a larger image on which you should be able to read the meat of the changes.

Charlton vs. Parking Restrictions

There was a Charlton home game on Sunday and something odd was going on with the parking restrictions.

The signs are put up, by the police I believe, about 4 hours before the restrictions come into force and that's 2 hours before kick off.

Anyhow the signs said that restrictions started at 1pm, which is usual for a 3pm kick off. The KO was at 1.30pm though, so way before 1 o'clock the area was packed the roads cleared.

I wonder if anyone got a ticket and what rights of appeal they might have.

More ineptitude from those responsible though....

Fair enough I chose to live near a football stadium and there will be consequences of that. However the council could do a lot to make things easier for us residents.

Charlton vs. My Car

Well I had my car ticketed this morning, parked somewhere that it shouldn't have been on a match day. I've got no excuse, I knew there was a match today and also knew that it was starting early today. It's just that I was expecting to go out in the car last night and on the way home park it around the corner. I didn't, so I didn't. Hands up it's my fault entirely.

However would it be too much to ask the council to put up the parking suspended signs a day early? As is they only do it two hours before the restrictions come into force, which is no real use to man or beast.

I guess the counterpoint is that the date of the next restrictions is shown on the board up near the station. However that's quite small and easy to miss, the yellow signs would be more obvious.

I'm not trying to find an excuse, as I said this is my fault, but I do think earlier signage would be nice.