You're paying £120 a month to park at home. So why is the service so bad?

If you park at home in East Village, you'll know Sippi. It's the app you use to manage your residential parking permit. And if you've had to deal with it recently, there's a good chance you've also had to deal with its problems.

Residents across E20 report hour-long phone queues. Emails ignored for weeks. Permits that take months to process. And most frustratingly, Penalty Charge Notices issued to vehicles that were correctly registered the whole time. One resident reported being fined twice during a period they say they had already paid for, and being told to pay £170. Another waited three weeks for a permit after moving in, sitting exposed to fines throughout.

This isn't bad luck. It's how the system works.

The permit company and the fines company are the same company

Sippi is owned by Agena Group, a parking business based in East Sussex. Agena also owns UK Car Park Management (UK-CPM), the enforcement company that issues PCNs on your estate.

The app that manages your permit and the operation that fines you: same parent company.

That matters because of the money. UK-CPM offers its permit platform to landlords and building managers at no cost to them, but only when they also use UK-CPM to enforce parking. So the building pays nothing. Permit costs in E20 vary but can reach around £120 a month, based on EVH's own experience. And Agena earns again every time UK-CPM issues a fine, including, residents say, fines they believe were wrongly issued.

Sippi's own marketing promises a system that reduces "avoidable charges." Its LinkedIn celebrates a case study where ANPR cameras pushed compliance above 99% and called the result "remarkable revenue growth." A significant share of that revenue comes from enforcement charges. It's not buried in the small print. It's the pitch.

Who actually owns this

Agena isn't a local business. It's a private equity roll-up on its second owner.

In 2019, London PE firm Sovereign Capital Partners bought a small Exeter car park operator called Premier Park. They brought in a new CEO, Paul Dawson, former chief executive of ParkingEye, one of the UK's biggest enforcement companies, and went on a buying spree. Within 18 months they'd acquired UK-CPM, software firm Atria (which built Sippi), and Park Watch.

By the time they sold up, the group had grown from 840 managed sites to over 5,000, with revenue up more than 460%. In February 2025, Agena was sold again, this time to Livingbridge, another private equity firm.

When you're on hold waiting to sort your permit, you're a cost centre for a PE-backed business optimised for revenue growth. That's not a criticism. It's just what the structure is.

Why no one answers the phone

UK Car Park Management, the company that actually runs your permits and issues your fines, has around 23 employees. It manages thousands of sites across the UK.

Across the whole Agena Group, including all its brands, there are around 280 staff covering over 5,000 sites. Customer support for residential permits is a thin slice of that.

Staff reviews on Indeed fill in the rest. One describes the company as having "too much management and not enough staff to manage." Another says it is "the most mentally damaging place I have ever worked — underpaid, undervalued and belittled." A third notes: "It used to be a good company to work for when there were quality people. Unfortunately they left the business or are planning to." That review was written in March 2025 — the same month Livingbridge completed its takeover.

To be fair to the people picking up the phones: they're not the problem. They're working inside a structure that doesn't need to prioritise resident service to keep the money coming in. The enforcement cameras run whether the phones are answered or not.

Parliament tried to fix this. The industry sued.

This isn't just an East Village problem. Private parking companies issue around 22,000 tickets every day across the UK. In 2022, the government's own minister described the industry as using "misleading and confusing signage, aggressive debt collection and unreasonable fees designed to extort money from motorists."

A statutory Code of Practice, with real teeth, was passed into law in 2019 and published in 2022. Before it could come into force, a group of parking operators challenged it in court. It was withdrawn. As of today, no statutory code exists. The industry still self-regulates through two trade associations. UK-CPM is a member of one of them.

One thing worth knowing: a PCN from a private parking company is not a council parking ticket. It's a civil invoice under contract law. You have more rights than the letter implies.

What happened when EVH looked into it

EVH's editor lodged a formal complaint with Sippi on 5 March after his own permit renewal failed for the third consecutive year. His permit had been cancelled, apparently because a payment attempt failed, despite his card details being unchanged and funds available. A separate application submitted the same day was approved ten days later, with payment taken successfully on the same card.

During the week that followed, his complaint received an auto-reply and a redirect to a PO Box in Exeter. A phone call was abandoned after 45 minutes on hold with no answer. Two follow-up emails went unacknowledged.

Five days after the original complaint, Sippi responded, saying the permit had been cancelled because payment had not been received within three days of approval. No explanation was given for why the same card worked on the separately submitted application.

EVH contacted Agena Group, Sippi, and UK-CPM for comment on 9 March 2026. No response was received by the time of publication.

What you can do right now

Got a PCN?

Don't ignore it, but don't just pay it either. A private parking charge is a civil invoice, not a fine. You have the right to appeal.

• Appeal to UK-CPM first. Details are on the back of the notice. Be factual: include your permit reference, Sippi screenshots, and any confirmation emails.
• If that's rejected, escalate to the IPC appeals service. It's free and independent of UK-CPM.
• Act quickly. Debt demands can escalate to £170+ within 28 days.
• Citizens Advice can help if you're unsure whether a charge is enforceable.

Having problems with Sippi?

• Screenshot everything: dates, times, reference numbers, app confirmations.
• Contact your managing agent directly. For most E20 residents that's East Village Management Limited (EVML) at 80 Celebration Avenue, E20 1DB. They hold the contract with UK-CPM. Resident pressure on them is the most direct lever available.

Want to push for change?

• Write to your Newham councillor. A pattern of complaints from E20 residents is exactly the kind of thing that prompts scrutiny of contract terms at renewal.
• Share your experience with us (details below). The more accounts we have on record, the stronger the case for change.

Want more investigations like this?

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East Village Hub is free, independent, and run by a resident. We don't take advertising and have no connection to any parking company, managing agent, or landlord. Had problems with Sippi? We want to hear about it. Email hello@eastvillagehub.co.uk or drop us a message. Nothing gets published without your permission.