Haringey Council still fails to come clean over staff parking permits scam 12/12/03

Local Conservatives today accused Haringey Council of failing to 'come clean' over Council employees' abuse of the Essential Parking Permits (ESPs) scheme. ESPs are meant to be provided to staff travelling on official business and needing to park in CPZ areas but abuses of the scheme are alleged to include day-after-day commuter-style parking in roads near to the Civic Centre and even the use of an ESP outside a Council employee's home to avoid purchasing a CPZ permit.

A doughty resident, Mr S Fedida, has been pursuing staff abuse of the scheme through the Council's Environment Scrutiny scheme. Conservatives have been following Mr Fedida's campaign with interest but have now decided to intervene, highlighting the highly unsatisfactory nature of answers given to Mr Fedida in a letter following the Committee's running out of time at its meeting on 12 June.

Conservatives say the letter is a typical blend of Council obfuscation & evasion and tantamount to a fob-off. Conservatives say that the Council is failing to 'come clean' and, staggeringly, says it does not even know how many ESPs it has issued or to which departments.

Commenting on the correspondence, Peter Forrest, Conservative GLA Candidate for Enfield-Haringey, said:

"I salute Mr Fedida's perseverance in dealing with this slippery Council. It is clear that the whole ESP issue is a can of worms, riddled with abuse. The fact that the Council does not know how many ESPs it has issued shows simultaneously how the 'system' has spiralled out of control and what a cavalier attitude the Council takes to the possibility of staff abuse.

The Council should come clean on what is little short of a scam. I have written both to the Council's Internal Auditors and to the Audit Commission (District Auditor) asking them to mount an investigation into the affair".