Pay and display machines will return to areas of the city this week as part of a new trial.
Brighton and Hove City Council is installing 12 machines in busy areas or where there’s a lack of businesses to pay by card under the PayPoint scheme, such as Rottingdean.
However, there still won’t be any way of paying by cash.
Since the council took away the old pay and display machines last year, people without mobile phones – or signal – have struggled to pay for parking.
The areas being trialled are:
- Grand Avenue
- King Alfred Car Park
- Kingsway x 2
- Marine Parade x 2
- Madeira Drive x 2
- Norton Road Car Park
- Rottingdean Marine Cliffs Car Park
- Rottingdean West Street Car Park
- Spring Gardens (near the North Laine)
The touch screen machines will take contactless payments and provide users with a ticket they will need to display in their vehicles.
Users can still pay using a smartphone app or by calling a number and paying by card if they wish.
At the end of the three-month trial, we’ll assess data like the number of transactions, transaction type and public feedback before deciding on next steps.
Councillor Trevor Muten, cabinet member for Transport, Parking and Public Realm said: “I’m pleased to see the reintroduction of pay and display machines in these popular areas of the city, especially along the seafront.
“Since pay and display machines were decommissioned last spring, we’ve heard from residents that some people have difficulty paying on their mobile phones, especially in areas where access to PayPoint is difficult.
“We want Brighton and Hove to be an accessible city for all. We’ve listened to residents’ concerns and this trial will give us the opportunity to properly assess how people are paying for parking so we can make informed decisions going forward.”
This should make some people very happy.
Sensible step. Millions of pounds of payments were made with machines before they were deactivated – mostly with cards and a few transactions with cash. Giving people the choice to continue to pay with cards and not using a smartphone is a step back to sanity! Lots of comments when these were removed that people avoided areas or took the risk of a fine and didn’t pay.
Hopefully, the trial will show a demand and be cost-effective to keep these card machines running (and ideally others added).
Definitely. A big issue that was very reasonable was the lack of internet signal in some areas meaning people were unable to pay, and rules meant it couldn’t be after the fact, and no-one is going to pay beforehand and gamble not having a spot available.
If the figures make sense, then I’m more happy to go along with this.
Pandering to the boomerati
Pathetic. You’ll be old one day too and I promise you that new technology will baffle you then as well.
Everywhere you go, people including us oldies can use a credit/debit card.
Those with little intelligence will download an app that takes forever, that doesn’t always work and are mugged off with surcharges.
Has Muten ‘listened to residents’ concerns’ about vg 3 ? Nope! He just expects local taxpayers to make up the £6 million shortfall for the vanity project
Don’t worry. As long as the local taxpayers foot the bill, the council can make as many cockups as they like. I mean, it’s not as if they have to pay for every mistake they make personally.
I wonder how their decision to borrow money to invest on commercial property is going.
Great but how about removing all the defunct rusty old machines decorating our streets?
Let’s hope this time, someone is awake a the council parking dept. Remember when this happened?
https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2015/09/24/parking-cash-company-crashed-owing-3-2m-to-brighton-and-hove-city-council/
No one was ever prosecuted……
Left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing
Even with a phone the system is very clunky, so a good move.
There’s areas of the city that don’t, unbelievably, provide full mobile phone coverage, so a win for common sense.