When we got rid of our car leaving a partial campervan conversion we got told we needed a permit but they took that load, this time! We got the permit and they never bothered to ask. We did though and got told it was a camper because of the windows so didn't need a permit. That's good because private use vans are only allowed a set number of times a year. The campervan is treated as a car with unlimited, visits.
As to help, if they're there at all it's not guaranteed they'll help. Mind you there was a police sign asking for witnesses to an attack on one of the workers! They now wear camera rig, well every other one. You van understand their attitude because apparently following covid they simply got a lot more abuse which is totally wrong!