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phone signals to function, which telecoms But a quarter (27%) said they would struggle
operators are switching off. to find somewhere else to park that was
convenient, a figure that rises to 38% for
This means councils either have to spend drivers aged 65 and over – which suggests
large sums on replacing machines with councils that choose to ditch machines risk
more modern ones or get rid of machines putting off some drivers from visiting town and
altogether, in turn making drivers use a mobile city centres.
phone to pay to park – either via an an app
like RingGo or PayByPhone or by calling a A motivated fifth (19%) of all respondents
phone number. meanwhile said they would complain to their
local council and/or Member of Parliament if
Among the councils the RAC is aware are payment machines in their areas were to be
scrapping all their payment machines are removed.
Brighton and Hove, along with Bromley,
Enfield and Harrow in London. RAC spokesman Rod Dennis said: “While for
many people a switch to purely mobile phone-
The plan to scrap machines and force people based parking payment poses no problems,
to pay by app triggered a strong reaction our research clearly shows that for others it
among drivers surveyed by the RAC’s with spells bad news. In fact, a majority of drivers
59% – and 73% of those aged 65 and over – across all age groups think getting rid of
saying they feel angry at the idea of physical parking payment machines is a bad idea.
parking machines being removed as they
believe they should be able to pay for parking “Of course, cash-strapped councils will find it
however they want. difficult to justify spending large sums of public
money on upgrading parking machines which
A fifth of all drivers (20%) said they felt explains why some are bringing in third-party
discriminated against as they simply can’t parking app providers instead – sometimes
use mobile apps to pay for parking in the first making parking charges even more expensive
place, a figure that rises to 30% of those aged as they take their own cut.
65 and over. Just three-in-10 (31%) of drivers
of all age groups are completely comfortable “But it’s vital councils, and indeed private
with payment machines being removed (and parking operators, carefully assess the
only 14% of those aged 65-plus). impact of going down this route before taking
machines away. Our research shows that by
When asked what impact a council removing removing some methods of paying for parking
payment parking machines would have on they are undoubtedly making life harder for
them, half (48%) said they would drive to a some drivers and possibly contributing to
different car park where they can still pay social isolation. The move could also lead to
using cash or a bank card.
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