Parking
Cashless parking: pay by phone - new service from 29 September.
What we do
- We design, consult on, and implement controlled parking zones and other parking controls including disabled badge-holder’s parking places in the borough’s roads and we review and amend those controls.
- We provide an enforcement service to encourage compliance with the controls, and to penalise people who disregard them.
- We consider representations regarding penalty charge notices (“parking tickets”) and collect payments for penalties.
- We maintain pay and display machines and the signs and road markings used to indicate the parking controls.
- We manage some off-street car parks in the borough.
- We issue resident and business parking permits and visitor vouchers and we suspend parking places for events, access, and road works.
- For further information try our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
Differential parking
London Councils undertake a major review of additional parking charges every four years. In the summer of 2006, London Councils and Transport for London (TfL) carried out a joint consultation on possible changes to parking charges in London. A public opinion survey on differential parking penalties took place at the same time as the public consultation on additional parking charges.
The results of both the public opinion survey and public consultation were presented to London Councils Transport and Environment Committee (TEC) in December 2006. TEC agreed at that meeting to move to a system of differential parking penalties from 1 July 2007.
New penalties for parking infringements came into force across London on Sunday 1 July 2007, with drivers penalised according to the seriousness of the contravention:
- Higher contraventions
(PDF 83KB) enforced by Barnet will incur a £100 charge - Lower contraventions (PDF 78KB).will mean a £60 charge
- Higher penalties will apply in some other boroughs and on Transport for London (TfL) roads
- These penalties replace the previous charge of £80 in Barnet
- All London boroughs have agreed what a serious contravention is. It is not left to the discretion of parking attendants
- For instance parking on zigzag markings at a pedestrian crossing will be charged at the higher level
- But overstaying the time allowed in a pay and display bay is considered less serious and will result in a £60 penalty
- Barnet Council aims to be as fair as possible to the motorist. Normally parking in a residents’ bay without displaying a permit or visitor voucher would be a higher level penalty, but if the driver was genuinely visiting a resident and can later provide a valid visitor voucher to prove this, we will accept payment at the lower level
- Motorists driving in a bus lane in London will face charges of £120
- There will still be a 50% discount for paying the charges within 14 days.
The introduction of differential parking charges has necessitated amendments to two existing contraventions (codes 15 and 19) and the introduction of a new one (code 12).
Code 12: “Parked in a residents’ or shared use parking place without clearly displaying either a permit or voucher or pay and display ticket issued for that place” has been introduced to be used in circumstances where a vehicle has nothing on display at all, which would allow it to be parked in the particular parking space.
If issued a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) for contravention code 12 you will also receive an accompanying notice. This notice will inform the driver that if they were parked to visit a resident and can provide evidence of this then you will only need to pay the lower charge of £60 (or £30 if paid within the 14 day period), rather than the amount shown on the PCN.
Proof that you were visiting a resident should be in the form of a visitor voucher which was valid on the date of contravention given on the PCN. The original voucher being sent as proof should be sent to us with an explanatory letter to our correspondence address shown on this webpage. It may be advisable to keep a copy of the voucher for your records.
For further information please see the London Councils' press release.
Bus lane enforcement
Vehicles seen entering a bus lane during the restricted hours will be issued a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN). Enforcement is carried out by CCTV cameras during the following times, Monday to Saturday 7am-10am and 4pm-7pm.
Please note this includes all bank holidays with the exception of Christmas Day (public holiday).
Related Service Area Information: Parking
