Coin-operated onstreet parking machines are being decommissioned in favour of smartphone apps, despite complaints by some drivers that parking apps are expensive and unreliable.
The latest area to be hit is Guildford, which, in the past month, has had two-thirds of its town centre parking machines disabled, with notices taped to them advising motorists to pay using the RingGo app.
Surrey County Council said the decision was due to ageing machines, adding: “It costs more to collect cash and maintain many of the machines than they collect in income.”
However, not all motorists are happy. Autocar spoke to one driver as she struggled to use one of the new machines in the town. “My phone can’t establish a connection [to the RingGo app],” she said. “I’m already late for an appointment and don’t have time to waste trying to buy a ticket. I expect I shall be fined.”
Later at the same machine, an elderly couple were also unhappy about the change. “We don’t like downloading and using apps and would much rather use coins or contactless payment,” they said. “At least we have a smartphone. Many of our friends don’t. We will have to find another parking space.”
In response, Surrey County Council said the connection issues were “isolated” and “motorists who would like to pay with coins are able to park in alternative locations”.
In contrast, Brighton and Hove City Council is considering whether to recommission the 12 contactless payment machines it had switched off in its city centre last year.
It recently concluded a three-month trial of the recommissioned machines, and feedback from drivers has indicated that they are more popular than paying by apps.
Speaking to BBC Radio Sussex, Joyce Collins, 90, said: “I don’t know anything about apps. I don’t take my car into the city especially because I don’t know about the parking.”
Another local resident, Christina Westwell, said: “If we have to use an app, we just drive off. I don’t want to have to go online.”
A spokesperson for the AA said parking apps are not popular with many of its members, adding: “They prefer to pay using chip and pin and get angry with parking apps that won’t connect or carry extra charges. Councils make it difficult to pay then make it more expensive to pay. It’s a real mess.”
Join the debate
Add your comment
Couldn't just do contactless payment with tap in tap out like with some busses?
Hmmm.....maybe the cost of theft from machines and employing someone to collect the money outweighed their "no change given" grift when charging prices like so many pounds plus 10p per hour and since most people only keep pound coins or fifty pence pieces in their pockets now, they'd end up being overcharged.
Phone apps are not the way forward nor easy nor convenient. These types of things have a habbit of leading to hacking and fraud; if your water company can lose all your personal and banking data (like Southern Water did), how secure and safe will a little firm that controls charging in car parks be?
Also, messing about with your phone trying to figure out how to use an app or service in a car-park will sometimes result in someone taking it off you now!
Yet another example of the deterioration in customer service in favour of bleeding people dry. Maybe councils should be subjected to an efficiency study to improve their use of public money and eliminate waste due to incompetence and inefficiency instead of charging for car parks? That might also encourage people back to town centres to spend their money on local businesses that are going bankrupt.
Idiots. Andrew1, you probably work for them.