Permit delay apology

ELDERLY residents have suffered “unnecessary stress” over a delay in handing out parking permits in Shaw.

Liberal Democrat councillors pushed through a residents’ parking scheme in Britannia Avenue in December when the Metrolink station opened.

Homeowners were issued permits for the space outside their house, and visitor passes.

Anyone parking within the scheme boundaries without a permit is fined.

But visitor passes expired at the end of March and more than a week later residents still hadn’t received new ones.

Lib-Dem leader Howard Sykes said: “The residents’ parking scheme has been a great success, but this delay is not acceptable.

“It’s typical Oldham Council: do something really well then fall down in the detail.”

A council spokesman said the new permits were hand delivered at the weekend with a letter of apology and guarantee that parking fines issued in the absence of a permit would be quashed.