Petition against new parking machines in Mid Sussex Petition : [ powered by iPetitions.com ]

#	Name	Where do you live? (e.g Lindfield)	Your comments
1	L.Hackett	Chailey	These machines are ridiculous. I waited for 10 minutes the other day whilst i queued for a ticket. I do not like shopping at the best of times and the new parking systems have made it into a nightmare! Online shopping has become ever more popular in recent times, you would think the council would realise this and try and ATTRACT shoppers to towns, not deter them!
2	Mrs. C. Manwaring	Plumpton	Out of principle, I will not be using any carparks that have this payment system installed!
3	Christopher Webb	Burgess Hill	These machines will discourage people from using the town centre shops and incourage them to shop our of town. This is a short sighted measure by the council to increase their funds.
4	Lee	worthing	I think the post code entry idea is outrageous, as a person working in Burgess Hill i have found our business is suffering as a result, the machine is too complicated and it is just another money spinner, is should be peoples right to hand over a parking ticket to someone else if there is still time on it, some people only stay in town for 10 mins and you have to pay for an hour!! you should be able to pass the ticket to someone else, they paid for it therefore its up to them what they do with it, its typical of this country charging more and more for everyday things, and the government wonder why small towns are becoming like ghost towns and small bussines' are closing down!!This is the most recesive government in history!!
5	Ron Carney	Burgess Hill	What a nightmare if the retail trade was not suffering enough now they put these stupid meters in which puts people off in coming to town.
6	Anonymous	Anonymous	I for one will not be using these car parks. I feel that small businesses will drastically see a decline in trade with more people shopping on line or going elsewhere.
7	Ms Wendy Evans	Haywards Heath	What ever next!! just a waste of money in my opinion and do hope that they at least give change!
8	Anonymous	Anonymous	I find the new machines totally unessecery & have today waited for 15 mins to use one with a que of 10 pepople behind me!!!!!!!!!
9	Jen Brown	Burgess Hill	I spent over 10 mins waiting for a ticket, I had my children with me . It was a complete nightmare !
10	A. Mockford	Lewes	This is such a rubbish system, only hope it does not spread to Lewes.
11	Sandra	Henfield	Waste of my money and time, i can't believe no one consulted the public before they were installed.
12	Jean Antrobus	Haywards Heath	Sent an email to my councillor on the day these machines were installed - mean and petty minded of the council. They are supposed to provide a service to their customers. This is not a service it is a penance.
13	Anonymous	Anonymous	I will be shopping in Horsham and Tunbridge Wells in future. They have machines where part of registration number is needed but they are simple and straightforward and give change. Haywards Heath town has very little to offer and these machines have just made the situation worse.
14	Anonymous	Anonymous	Complete waste of time and money. Will not be using these car parks.
15	Anonymous	Anonymous	I am elderly and cannot cope with these machines.
16	Anonymous	Anonymous	A friend of mine, who at 75 is considerably older than myself, said to me this week 'what am I going to do about the parking machines. I just can't get to grips with them and I am lying awake at night trying to run through the sequence'. There will always be a large number of people who will never grasp how to work these machines, no matter how many times they are shown and inevitably they will cause queues to form. The machines in the Orchards car park in HH have been covered more than they have been in use so have obviously gone wrong already! The council must have lost an awful lot of money on this - its nice to know that in these times of high prices and recessions that the council can just waste money. Get rid of these machines now or alter them so that all you do is put your money in.
17	Brian Tester	Lindfield	I now shop at Horsham -congratulations to MSDC for driving away the hand that feeds them
18	Mrs Bryant	Burgess Hill	Many people are struggling with these new machines, they are not user friendly especially to elderly or poorly sighted people, and I do not feel it is necessary for registration numbers to be put onto tickets. If I wish to pass my ticket onto someone if the time has been paid for I should be able to why should the council benefit for the same space being paid for twice for the same hour!!!!
19	Sylvia Knowles	Haywards Heath	Parking charges in this town have gone up and up over the past 10 years. I returned from holiday one year, only to find they had DOUBLED from 30p to 60p per hour. Now the council has wasted thouands of pounds on ridiculous computer-like machines which the majority cannot understand. Are the council people deliberately setting out to antagonise local residents? I have long believed that, with our extortionate Council Tax, parking ought to be free for residents of the town in question, e.g. a free (or very cheap) annual permit should be issued with the Council Tax bill, say. This latest fiasco is absolutely outrageous. As one Middy reader pointed out, the space is already paid for, once the motorist has put the money in, so how is it "fraud" to pass the partly-used ticket on to another fellow parker? the wretched space has already been bought for that period!!! Others who are more financially aware than myself will be able to deduce the actual profits that are likely to result from overlapping payment for a parking space, but I am guessing that such profit would take a very long time indeed to cover the cost of the new machines. Bring back the men in booths!
20	Anonymous	Anonymous	I am 69 years old.The meters are are a disgraceful waste of money and I shall not pay to park in Haywards Heath. In a commercial company the people who made this decision would be sacked.
21	Anonymous	Anonymous	I work in a bank in Burgess Hill, starting at 0845. I now have to leave earlier because it takes 5-10 mins to park because a lot of people don't know how to use the machines. A lot of our customers are elderly and they really can't cope and get quite distressed.
22	Edmund Hutchings	West Hoathly	i strongly disagree with the parking schedule
23	Patrick Ferry	Haywards Heath	Total waste of Tax Payers money. Passing on tickets did not reduce revenue as space was already paid for. To be paid twice for the the same space is FRAUD
24	Lorraine Laycock	Plumpton Green	Bloody stupid move by MSDC.. will only drive away shoppers.........me included
25	Sue Tester	Lindfield	It will be quicker for me to shop in Horsham now,instead of queuing to buy a parking ticket at the new car park vending machine at Haywards Heath.
26	Anonymous	Anonymous	These machines installed by a petty-minded council are not user friendly, time consunimg and expensive. It will take many years for the council to recoup the £130000, just to save the odd few pence. The old machines didn't give change so I think the council was well compensated for the few losses incurred with people passing on unexpired tickets. I question the legality of this. So pernickety.
27	Marilyn Argles	Burgess Hill	I would like to see the same type of meter machine as the one in the martlets car park by Waitrose. It is a much fairer way - i.e. paying as you stay, no ticket to give to someone else, easy to operate.
28	Anonymous	Anonymous	New Meters should give change
29	Caroline Tower	Ditchling	This system discourages the community spirit. If I have purchased one hour for parking it should be my right to choose to leave my space and donate the time to another shopper. The machines are complicated and timely to use. I will not shop in H Heath until a different system is in operation
30	Anonymous	Anonymous	Working in the dentist lots of patients have been very late for appointments
31	andrew johnson	Haywards Heath	The council are determined to screw every last penny out of an already over stretched taxpayer.The charges are already too high and now the machines don't give change,so a 10 minute pop to the shop could cost one pound.What is SO wrong with a little community spirit in passing on a few minutes of an unexpired ticket.Perhaps the councillors who endorsed this idea are should look ahead to the next elections.
32	Natalie john	Haywards Heath	These machines are an absolute waste of time.There was no need to get rid of the old ones.
33	G Dillon	Lindfield	The instructions on the machines are worse than useless. I have a sight problem and although I no longer drive could at least put the money in the old meter for my partner. Now I cannot do that as the screen is difficult to read especially if the sun is shing direclty on it as it does in the Orchards Car Park in Haywards Heath. A dgit is any number from 0 to 9 not a letter of the alphabet!!!!!
34	Frances Wallace	Haywards Heath	I am sure there are better ways of stopping people from giving their tickets to others. This system is ridiculous and time wasting. I had to wait 30 minutes the other day and missed my daughters' may procession at St Josephs school. I am tempted not to shop at the Orchards any more and go further afield.
35	Barwins Jewellers	Haywards Heath	We cannot understand why the Council would want to install machines of this type when all it will do is drive people away from Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill and considering the current economical climate this makes no sense at all.Perhaps they want to create 'Ghost Towns'!
36	Anonymous	Anonymous	It is a ridiculous solution to a nonexistent problem. I spend more time queueing for the ticket machine than shopping.
37	Anonymous	Anonymous	These machines are a complete waste of time and money. I will not be shopping in HH in future. I can drive to Horsham in 20 mins and there are no queues at their machines plus they give change.
38	Anonymous	Anonymous	The council is supposed to represent the will of the community - it does not exist to impose unnecessary, unpopular and wasteful restrictions on the community
39	Anonymous	Anonymous	These machines make life difficult for the elderly and also all users particularly when the sun shines and the screens for loggin in registration numbers are difficult to see. Another waste of money.
40	SUSAN ASHBY	NEWICK	these machines take a ridiculous amount of time to use and are complicated and confusing for a lot of people.. what a waste of £130,000!
41	Mrs Anne MacKenzie	Haywards Heath	Bring back a manned station if you want to ensure no 'fraud' although I feel that if someone has paid for the space, you have already got your money.
42	Sally Dowsett	Balcombe	When I've paid for my parking space I see it as my right to offer it to another driver if I've not used up MY TIME paid for.
43	Ivor Colwill	Haywards Heath	This parking scheme is more than just ridiculous as an annoyance and time-wasting nuisance, it is a serious waste of my money as a Council Tax payer. The amount of money spent on these machines and their installation against an unknown (but I'd guess very low) amount saved from passing on unexpired tickets is huge. It is a NEGATIVE return for us as a taxpayers. It also allows the council to perpetrate a moral fraud while claiming it prevents fraud based on what is, in the final analysis, an immoral rule: the council can re-sell a parking space it has sold multiple times because the user has had the goodness to vacate the space before the time expired. I'm furious that the council has abused my money like this when it could have been put to better use. The best solution is to scrap the silly byelaw and let people pass on unexpired tickets - the council will lose very little simply from practical considerations - an unexpired ticket will only be usable if enough time remains on it. Few people actually pass on tickets and fewer still accept them. Anyway, I have tried to use one of the machines in the Orchards, failed, lost my rag, put the person in the queue behind me to convenience because I couldn't cancel the damned thing and did my shopping in Burgess Hill. It'll either be Burgess Hill or Crawley in future, until the system is scrapped. At the very least, the person responsible for recommending and inspiring this fracas needs firing (or at the very least fining by the traders for loss of trade) and the councillors will not get my vote next time.
44	Nicola Lack	Chailey	I have witnessed the chaos and confusion caused these new machines. They are unnecessarily complicated and the reasoning behind their introduction ( to reduce fraud) is flawed.
45	Fiona McIntosh	Sharpthorne	Today I abandoned my shopping trip in frustration. I parked leaving a 2 year old strapped into a chair while i 'nipped' to the ticket machine. There was a queue of 9 people waiting to buy tickets (never seen this before in 20 years). In the 8 minutes I waited only 1 person managed to buy their car park ticket - when i commented on how long it was taking the person behind me in the queue said 'that's because noone knows their licence plate number'...I didnt know mine either and as there were now 5 more people in the queue behind me it would have taken me at least 20 mins to queue for the ticket machine. I have never seen anything more ridiculous - scheme may work when the car park not busy but today it was complete chaos. (Haywards Heath car park next to Tesco and only one machine working). It has been made unnessarily complicated - what were you thinking? (you obviously weren't...). Someone in front of me commented it was to stop people passing on their tickets to other car park users if there was still time left. If this is true this penny pinching seems ridiculous as the person has payed for a car to be in that space for that amount of time no matter what car is in it. What about all the times people pay for a full hours parking and only been their half an hour? This new system is impractical and inconvenient for any avaerage person and impossible for a mum with a small child(ren). If I had not abandoned my shopping trip today I would have spent more time queueing for my ticket than i would have spent in the shops - couldn't possibly leave child in car for this length of time on own and the alternative is to keep a toddler entertained while queueing in a car park?. Sort it out you buffoons, I have never seen such a ridiculous debacle as there was today. I shall not be parking there again while this ticket system is being used.
46	Kirsten Elliott-Smith	Haywards Heath	These machines are too time consuming and difficult for the older generation. I have had to queue for over 20 minutes. I now only shop in HH if it really can't be avoided.
47	Philip	Lindfield	The new machine's take far too long to use, even when you know how to use them. Old people really struggle with them and they still don't give change, which is tantamount to theft! Parking machines in Horsham have an alphabet keypad on them and in Crawley they don't ask for your reg number at all. I don't see the problem with letting someone have your ticket if you haven't used all of the alloted time, it all seems very tight to me!
48	Paul Johnson	Haywards Heath	These machines were a completely unnecessary expenditure. I have passed on my tickets to other users many times, and have received the same kindness in return, many times! This might be 'fraud' legalistically, but it is NOT fraud ethically. This is my money - let me have a say in how it's spent please.
49	B. Fitzpatrick	Lindfield	I find it difficult to comprehend any logic or reasoning behind the installation of these complicated machines. At a time when the smaller towns are struggling against the likes of Crawley/Horsham/Brighton it beggars belief that the Council should go out of its way to alienate visitors/shoppers to Haywards Heath. Personally I now shop in town,once a week on a sunday visiting those shops that are open whilst taking my main custom to those towns that are more accommodating. One observation I would make is that when visiting Buxton in Derbyshire recently the Council operated a similiar system but the machines and operation where so much simpler, no problems at all. Why is this? Is it because their Council is more in tune with their residents and visitors? Barbara Fitzpatrick
50	Eric Platts	Haywards Heath	The council are spending thousands of pounds in new parking machines, to prevent the 'loss' from from ticket-transfers. This makes no economic sense, as the amount spent greatly exceeds the minor deficit.