Nottingham motorist's 'nightmare' as he's fined twice for parking outside own home

A Nottingham man has been fined twice for parking outside his home due to "frustrating" delays in being sent a new permit after getting a new car. Tom Lambert, who lives in Cliff Road in the city centre, has been waiting for two months to receive the document after buying his new Seat Leon.

Describing the situation as a "nightmare", the 27-year-old said he applied for a new permit on September 2. Nottingham City Council's website says residents should wait no less than four weeks.

"They've not responded at all. I've tried emailing them and calling a councillor. The phone lines take at least half-an-hour to get through and are only open when I'm working," said Mr Lambert, who lives with his partner.

"We've followed all their procedures and yet they can't even live up to their standards. It's been a nightmare, I've had two parking tickets. I appealed but they upheld them which is a bit frustrating.

"My neighbours are struggling with the same thing. I'm between the city centre and the Lace Market so the closest free parking is in St Ann's which is nearly a mile (away).

"To lose £70 isn't great but I won't lose sleep about it. However, we're going through a rough patch." Nottingham City Council said it would send the new permit and cancelled his fines when contacted by Nottinghamshire Live.

However, Mr Lambert said his application had been rejected. A city council spokesperson said: "We’re sorry that Mr Lambert has had a delay in getting his parking permit and that he then received fines – this shouldn’t have happened. This has now been sorted out and the fines cancelled, he should receive his permit in the next few days.

"Our parking permits team have a massive peak in applications from June – October due to thousands of new residents, mainly students, applying for permits. This has come at the same time as our team were short-staffed. We have new team members starting next week and anticipate the delays resolving in the next couple of weeks.

"In terms of our opening hours, our parking permits team receive around 350 calls a day and so the remaining hours in the day are needed to process the applications. Being available for four hours is comparable or in most cases better than other local authorities who tend to be open two hours a day."