Currently reading: Car park woes as councils swap coin payment machines for apps

Withdrawal of coin-operated machines in main UK towns and cities leaves apps as sole option

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.”

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In 2023, RingGo generated a record £30 million in parking fees. The money came from the fees it charges councils for managing payments.

The company is one of many app-based parking firms that also include JustPark and PayByPhone.

In an effort to simplify cashless parking, the Department for Transport (DfT) recently created the National Parking Platform. Currently still being trialled, it unites five apps under one system and today handles almost 500,000 parking transactions per month in 473 UK locations.

Replying to criticisms of parking apps, the DfT said: “The government inherited an extremely challenging financial picture, but we are fixing the foundations, which includes making decisions about how to deliver projects where the gap between promised schemes and the money available has become clear.”

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artill 30 April 2025

So, Surrey council say it costs more to collect the parking payments, than they collect from those machines. Didnt anyone think of simply making the parking payment free? Or am i missing something?

As others have said, we have high streets, and smaller towns with almost no shops left, and almost no reason to visit them any more. What ever people say about using phones to pay being easy, i know a few over 70s who have been fined through getting this wrong. And these are the people who dont want to shop or bank on line, and would keep the high street going, if they could actually park when they got there.

 

Andrew1 30 April 2025
Sensationalist nonsense. I bet it only affects 1% of the population who is digitally illiterate. If that. Grow up, almost literally everyone has a phone and can use apps.
Peter Cavellini 30 April 2025
Andrew1 wrote:

Sensationalist nonsense. I bet it only affects 1% of the population who is digitally illiterate. If that. Grow up, almost literally everyone has a phone and can use apps.

Any of your relatives from the pre- App everything age?, yes there still some alive today who remember having to use a pencil and paper and now don't fully understand not having to use cash to pay for a drink and Sandwich or pay your shopping,if machines were linked to your a PIN number that would be much easier than having to faff about trying to download an App and hoping it works!, shoving a coin or two into a machine is much quicker.

Andrew1 30 April 2025

Yes, my older relatives can learn, they're not senile yet. My mother is pretty effective at using a mobile phone.

You probably don't realise but you're not doing yourself any favours. Train your brain more rather than moan about not coping with today's reality.

Also, if you can't use a mobile phone it's really questionable if your should drive a car. At least not a modern one.

xxxx 30 April 2025

Wish your mother would hide all your communication devices.

xxxx 30 April 2025

And there you go, your usual childish insults add nothing.

Andrew1 30 April 2025

Yeah, allow me to quote right wingers: it's not an insult if it's true.

SuffolkProf 30 April 2025

Nope,  quite reasonable sensible people.   Download some random App at a parking bay, find out how to use it, check its not a scam, check its not got access to things it shouldn't have.   Hmm, no thank you. Alternative is to go somewhere else, take your custom to an out-of-town tin-shed park, or a different town.    And the same councils wonder why their high streets are full of empty shops (or pop-up vape sellers).  

 

I'm not digitally illiterate.   I write websites, I write Apps,  I write embedded software.    

xxxx 30 April 2025

And councils wonder what puts people going into towns. All public car parks with more than 50 spaces should be made to accept credit or debit cards, far more simple. Apps and subscriptions are the baine of modern life.