Birmingham City Council Reviews 322

If I could give a zero…

Hit with an unexpected clean air zone bill I don’t even live in Birmingham and was working our way round and people don’t always notice these signs when trying to take correct turnings. Had no idea and now paid £60 not happy! leaches looking for money in my opinion needs to be a better way of making people aware other than just signs for people like us who who live in a different county. Just a joke and another way of ripping people in this cost of living crisis. I also read that if you appeal and you miss the 14 day lower payment window you have to pay double as bcc slow in responding. Disgusting

Clean Air Zone - Simply Unfair! Don't get me wrong, I have no problem at all with having a tax to discourage vehicles in city centres. I think it is a good idea. I hate city driving and avoid it at all costs. The only reason I went through Birmingham was because my SatNav insisted on taking me down the A38 (a major road, right through the middle of the exclusion zone). My issue is with the unfair administration of this charge.
1/ the onus is on the vehicle owner to know about the system, work out whether they are required to pay, work out how to pay, and work out when to pay.
2/ the charge then has to be paid withing 6 days of driving through Birmingham - NO exceptions
3/ no notification (or reminder) is sent out.
4/ there is no one you can call to say "oops, I made a mistake, can I pay now", on the 7th day ...I tried and it was told it is fully automated, no humans involved.
Sorry, but this is set up for drivers to fail and receive a PCN. I'm not familiar with Birmingham, this was my first time visiting. But honestly, the roads were a nightmare, traffic cones everywhere and confusing signage. To receive a hefty fine for the privilege of that awful experience was a kick in the teeth. I'm not sure if the intention is to discourage driving in the city centre, or just to discourage visiting completely. I certainly will not be returning. Sorry, but the city simply isn't nice enough to counter the awful experience of trying not to drive through it to get to our hotel.

Stay clear of this city with this council in place. I was issued a PCN for ULEZ which these things happen and I appealed it not being a local resident. Now if you pay the fine within 14 days the fine is reduced by half price however if you appeal against it you are then liable to pay £120 because you are over the 14days and you no longer have the right for the discounted amount… don’t think you need to be a genius to work this one out.

Just received my rent increase,Live ina high rise pay for Caretakers that do sweet fa, report a repair they don't turn up. The most incompetent shower in the country!

Possibly the most useless council that I have ever dealt with. I purchased a property and received an initial tax invoice. I attempted to open an account to pay but the system kept failing. Therefore, I responded by sending the direct debit slip to pay monthly. I later receive a final reminder notice demanding that I pay in full. As I received this invoice at my old address they clearly had all the details I had provided them. Need to address their staff's ability to do there job properly.

Birmingham City Council is not fit for purpose, we have an ongoing ASB case which has so far been going 5 years, yes 5 yes, the officer dealing with this Steven Howard is about as much use as a lead weight on a sinking ship, this is the second officer, as the 1st Peter Gayle took it upon himself to close the case, despite us saying no, just so the offender could take over the tenancy from his deceased mother, Mr Howard has not followed any of the guidelines set put by the council itself, he doesn't answer messages or emails, we feel like we are being treated as the perpetrators not the victims, total lack of professionalism from both the officer and the council in general.

Outraged with this council. Money making scammers hiring bullies like Equita to enforce themselves on a late clean air zone fines.
I had threatening letters and calls come through from Equita saying I hadn't paid a clean air zone payment. I informed them that I hadn't received anything from Birmingham city council they told me to call them a deal with it or else they'll be coming for our goods.
Called Birmingham city council and they really couldn't care less not even checking my details to see if any follow up letters were sent to me. The woman said it's with Equita and we can't do anything about it. Seriously?? I ended up paying £750 for what could have been a few founds on a late payment with the council had they helped.

Can I put less like 1 star website looks like 30 years old do any payment its like mission imposibble century XXI but birmingham its like welcome in century vii

Got robbed by the thieves at Birmingham council via ULEZ scam.

Every way you turn, some thieving lowlife is out to rob you. In this case, it's Birmingham City council.

No problem - will avoid this place in the future. Their loss, not mine.

As a BCC tenant I can say I am shocked at the level of service im getting regarding repairs lived in the property 18 months and been complaining about a leak under my sink Wich has not been resolved they send the cowboys in and still nothing baring in mind the kitchen is 40 plus years old along with the bathroom Wich has now lead to mould and mushrooms going and still won’t sort the issue I’ve now resulted into getting a solicitor involved don’t ever get houses by these rogue landlords rent out properties that ain’t for for purpose and don’t like doing repairs now it’s in the hands of a solicitor sad ya hve to get these involved for them to do their job properly I really hate bcc with a passion and yet their excuse is they have 60+ thousand properties that isn’t my problem my problem is I have a kitchen I can’t use due to it falling apart covered in mould and mushrooms Wich has resulted in me either living on take aways or using my neighbours kitchen to cook shame on you BCC

Parking ticket fine. The process is disgraceful. I made the payment around 20 minutes after spending time on the phone and ring go app trying to change my number plate on the system as i changed my number plate to a private number plate. Phone system and app is useless. I managed to complete this but moved away from car doing so as i did not want to be late for a work meeting. During this time, they put a parking ticket on. Baring in mind i was parked in a parking lot so the person who sits there was definitely monitoring the car. Birmingham Car Park NCP by the birmingham library. I appealed the parking fine as i paid £11.51 although was over the 5 minutes they give to pay the ticket but as mentioned above it took me some time to change my registration. No consideration. Very generic replies from the appeals team. If you want to appeal the appeal then you have to wait for a formal notice to owner which you only receive if you do not decide to pay the parking fine. Now the parking fine is at 50% discount so £25. If you decide to appeal through the formal notice to owner then you may not get the 50% discount. Straight away this forces your hand as the penalty charge could increase to £50 if your 2nd appeal is not upheld. Furthermore you have to go through this process before you can take it to the tribunal. So what do you do…..waste time (which is money) appealing writing emails etc and you still might end up paying £50 or just pay the £25? Absolute joke.
Birmingham City Council, we are going through a crisis with bills going up etc. Very inconsiderate.

I was recently stung by the clean air zone.
I didn't know it existed!
So, I googled it, and it came in suspiciously after Covid, presumably when Council funds were running low.
Several Councils have come close to bankruptcy citing Covid (google it...).

But not Birmingham City Council - they introduced a clean air zone so that Deborah Cadman can keep her excessively high wage! Seriously, does a councillor with limited responsibility over a million people deserve to get paid more than a head of state with complete and total responsibility of every aspect of life over a country with 60 million people? Thief!

Horrendous booked a bulky waste collection they showed up parked for five minutes and drove off no idea what they are doing call centre staff are hopeless clearly suit this authority incompetent the lot of them
never get a word of sense out of any of them biggest council outside London they are a EMBARRASEMENT

Driving in and out of Birmingham, I racked up 2 clean air zone charges - one on the way in, one on the way out. There were no markings to show that I was in the clean air zone, I didn't even know there was one. I got the letters through, pay £60 each within 14 days or it doubles. So, I contested it. Because I contested it, it went over the 14 days. So I had to pay £240!! For driving from Coventry to Birmingham and back!! It's only £3 on the bus!! Where does the money go? Deborah Cadman! She gets paid £186,000 a year. Birmingham City Council burns through £3.2 BILLION every year, has the lowest ratings for customer satisfaction for a council of it's size in the country (more complaints per capita than Leeds or Manchester), generally does nothing, and she put this robbing scheme in place to pay herself more than the Prime Minister! WHAT A ROBBING FRAUD!!!

Charged for a clean air zone despite the fact that our car is far cleaner than many entitled to drive in for free. Despite evidence to support this, you are up against a Council/Government office which means there is no accountability. No wonder the Country is in such a mess. Not much point in receiving a reply to this, but until fairness is mandatory, I will highlight this sort of disparity.

I had 6 parking tickets to pay for my stolen car. I have had 6 PCN rejected and had to pay £370 in fines for my stolen car being used in Birmingham. I have an official police report and a recovery receipt for my car, but all this did not matter, they robbed me. It’s hard enough in the present times with the cost of living, but I was put through more suffering. And the notices keep coming . It is torture.

I wish I could give 0 stars, the councillor and the council probably do not care anyways. They are just there to steal and destroy lives of the people of Birmingham.

Clean air zone is a scum project, I have always paid when I went in it, however this time I paid for the wrong date in error (as we are prone to). I called up to explain, the lady was so rude and condescending and she said it is the motorists fault and there is nothing they can do.

Eventhough I paid the charge technically, I was told that it should be foregone and I still have to pay the fine and even if I appealed, the original £120 will be held up... SO BASICALLY THE COUNCIL CHIEF & COUNCILMEN AND EXECUTIVES ARE JUST LYING THIEVES AND CONMEN LOOKING TO DESTROY LIVES EVEN IN THIS COST OF LIVING CRISIS. THERE IS NO WHERE TO COMPLAIN, TO EVEN VOICE AN IMPROVEMENT TO THE SYSTEM. BUNCH OF DICTATORS IN THERE, I AM JUST SO PISSED.

I think the other reviews show the true incompetence of this council, very happy not to live anywhere near this city and have to deal with the unqualified incompetent folk who run it.
Passed through for 1 day and will never be back again.
So sorry for all the good people of Birmingham to have these incompetent fools run it for you.

I went to Birmingham for the first time 5th Aug 2022 to see the bull. Was my birthday treat. Driving into the city centre was hard work, The roads are like spaghetti junction and I took 4 wrong turnings before I got into the centre. I have very limited mobility, but finding parking really close was so much easier than imagined! Lovely day, great atmosphere. Driving out was much the same, lots and lots of concentration needed for a new comer to drive around this city, but so worth the effort. So imagine my dismay when three weeks later I get a fine for not paying the clean air charge! What clean air charge?????? I didn't see any signs, but maybe I was busy concentrating on Driving! Why no notice on sat nav like there is for toll roads? I honestly don't remember seeing one sign asking me to pay a sign. So I am obviously too blind to visit Birmingham, so won't be happening again. Not worth the hassle, don't know what I will get fined for next time. Gutted. If I had seen a sign, I would have paid! No problem! It's a good idea! But why is it a secret!?!? Until 3 weeks later that is. So, lovely, lovely city, but can't afford the secret fines.

Awful service. Went through to switchboard and was given 4 numbers to try and call to resolve my query, all of them unobtainable then given an email address and had a reply saying on leave. Does anyone actually work here!!