Half of the on-street parking machines in Brighton and Hove will be removed shortly as part of an accelerating switch to paying by phone or in shops.
Brighton and Hove City Council is strongly urging drivers to register online now to join the service. Officials said that it was easier to do this at home, in advance.
The move, aiming to save £250,000 a year, has just been agreed by the full council. It is part of a package of £26 million savings forced this year by reductions in government grants and rising costs.
Maintenance and cash-collection costs are reduced under the new system.
It means that in the next couple of weeks the council will start removing roughly half the machines, zone by zone. The process is expected to be complete by June.
The council stressed that paying by phone was easy – with drivers able to register online at home or from mobile devices. Payment is then made on smartphones in the street by text or app – or by phoning the service using any type of phone.
Alternatively payment can be made at more than 150 shops offering “PayPoint” services. Many people already use these to pay for gas, electricity and other services.
There are also 55 pay-by-credit-card machines in the city. Half of the existing coin machines will also stay.
Once registered, drivers can pay by phone to park anywhere in Britain where the system operates. It works for on-street parking plus eight car parks in Brighton and Hove.
No tickets need to be displayed. Parking wardens know whether payment has been made by checking car numbers on mobile devices.
A trial of removing machines over the past three months produced promising results, the council said. This involved covering 34 machines. More than 85,000 transactions were made by phone or PayPoint during the period, with just 19 people complaining.
Already 100,000 drivers have registered in Brighton and Hove, either as residents or visitors. Four million are signed up nationwide.
The lead councillor for transport Ian Davey said: “It really is very easy to use the phone system as millions of people across the country have already found.
“I’d urge people to register as soon as possible, in advance, so you’re all set up by the time you need it. Large numbers of our visitors, from London, will already be registered.
“Once that’s done it’s actually a lot easier than messing about getting the right change. You can also top up your parking time remotely if you need to stay longer which is a lot easier than walking back to the car.”
The 15p transaction fee for phone payments has been cut to 10p as part of the budget changes.
Surely it would make more sense to incentivise paying by phone? So instead of costing 10 or 15p it is discounted by that amount or at least there should be no extra charge for using our phones. We’re being asked to pay more to help the council pay less in maintenance and collection charges. I’m sure the council has to pay a small commission to pay point operators in shops, so the same could apply to motorists.
What would have cost me £1 for an hour (if the machine was working in Hove (all machines were out of order in the area) cost me £1.45 how is that fair especially when you have to pay 5 days a week due to working there. Total rip off and I personally don’t like it
Moan moan moan moan moan moan moan………… and moan. This city is full of moaning wingers.
Surely Valerie Paynter will be along soon with a petition to save the heritage parking meters of HOVE, getting them grade 7 listed status.
This seems counter-productive to a city who gains so much from its visitors and invests a lot of money in an attempt to attract them. Infrequent visitors will not have registered with this system, will not want to scout around for a participating shop and will probably arrive after hours anyway. A good way of diverting them and their money elsewhere. Why arent the restaurants, B&Bs and shops protesting about this potential threat to their business?
Surely this is a bigger job for parking wardens to manage now, having to look up each car? Or do they have a simpler way to do it? Easy to just check a ticket in the window isn’t it, I reckon this will take them twice as long so we will end up employing more wardens?