Barnet Council - London

Maggie A.

Please be warned in case this happens to anyone else locally. On 4/9/2024 I had parked my car on Station Road in Mill Hill NW7. I own Mill Hill Dental Practice on Millway NW7 and had moved my car around the corner to allow a patient to park on the practice driveway. I parked by the parking sign which gave a code under the title pay with app. I had used Ringo parking frequently in the past to park in the M&S car park less than 60 metres down the hill. I entered the code displayed on Station Road into the Ringo app, paid for four hours parking and went back to the practice.
I received a letter from the council telling me I hadn't paid for parking. I then sent them the receipt from the Ringo app and they told me I had paid but for a different part of England and that Barnet council don't use Ringo.

I looked on the app and the location did in fact not state Station Road. At the time of paying I had just entered the location ID and paid. I have now had over six months of back and forth emails to the council explaining that I had paid and their signage had not stated anything other than the code at the time as an online option to pay. I made it clear that as I had paid, they shouldn't be marking down that I had not paid.

I was told that they would look into it again and have this morning received another demand, this time an order for enforcement at Northampton County Court for May 2025!

It's absolutely ridiculous and I'm quite happy to fight against this on behalf of all those that have no energy to rather than go ahead and pay the fine.

Hope this helps someone so that they don't make the same mistake with regards Ringo.

N K.

No need to contact them for mould or condensation they are just like landlords .. they won’t help, they aren’t interested and just refer back to the landlord who as already mentioned doesn’t do anything other than painting over. Then when speaking on the phone they just sort of say bye while you’re still talking so don’t bother, it’s just like most other councils, probably worse given that they don’t even help single parents with disabilities with general housing needs / affordable housing/deposits etc leaving you in overcrowded housing with mould. Don’t even know why they called me, went through all the pictures with them for no reason other than them telling me they don’t do anything? Waste of time?

Robert G.

Absolute joke of council, why bother paying your council tax?

They are criminals, and should be reported to the UK Government for not having cleaning streets and allowing people to continue with fly tipping behaviour and nothing gets done for weeks...

Absolute criminals who take your hard earned money and do absolute nothing to improve the borough and just let neighbours trash the place, all they care is to put people outside handling fines to the cars so they can make more money - just look at their google reviews and you will see they are jokers

REFORM NOW!!!

S. B.

Shocking & terrible service , council tax reduction dept is appalling, they lose documents you send them & you have to resend, they do everything to make is excruciating difficult. Today the person I spoke to had a terrible manner & voice , I could hardly understand him.
How do these people get jobs?

Dan P.

Horrible bunch. They don’t want to talk to anyone and just want your money. Bunch of Rottweilers when it comes to separating you from your money. Telephone menu and switchboard that must have been created by 4 year olds, yet they can fine you… but you can’t penalise them for burning up your time. Words don’t suffice.

Hermes W.

Barnet Council: Profiting Off Society's Most Vulnerable

Shame on Barnet Council for rejecting an appeal for my disabled grandfather, who was unfairly fined for driving through a pedestrian-only road three minutes before the closing time. The photo evidence clearly shows no pedestrians present—unsurprising since it was long past school drop-off hours.

This isn't about safety or community; it's about exploiting the vulnerable for profit. Targeting an elderly, disabled man for an honest mistake is despicable. Instead of exercising common sense or compassion, you chose to prioritize revenue over humanity.

Do better, Barnet Council. Stop acting like heartless bureaucrats and start serving the people you're meant to protect.

Glenn G.

Website user unfriendly, online forms with spelling mistakes, drop down menus not containing a full selection of options, the phone number has too many automated messages and a voice recognition that doesn't work properly .. and sometimes the Barnet Council website doesn't even work, coming with a message of 'bad gateway' when you are trying to get onto the website for information. Probably the worst designed, least helpful and most frequently unavailable council website in the country.

K P.

Impossible to reach them on phone, I already spent 50 minutes in the que today, emails are not answered in weeks, the website doesn't works properly, if it is working at all, the programming is from the dark ages won't handle a back to previous page command, they don't operate direct debits even if it is confirmed on the invoice. This is just trying to pay my taxes, not even having a problem.