New pound coins won’t come cheap
Upgrading machines will cost thousands
Businesses and councils across Kent are facing huge bills as the new £1 coin comes into circulation next month.
It is being introduced by the government to thwart the activities of sophisticated counterfeiters who have cost the UK economy an estimated £45 million in recent years.
The 12-sided coin, resembling the old threepenny bit and incorporating emblems from the four home nations, will be introduced on March 28, just six months after the new £5 note came into circulation.
And industry insiders fear some businesses may go bust as a result of the extra costs involved, particularly with a new £10 note being introduced in September and plans for a new £20 already on the horizon.
Maidstone council faces paying £6,453 to upgrade its 56 car park meters and Serco which runs Maidstone Leisure Centre in Willow Way, faces a £3,000 bill to change its locker mechanisms for the new currency.
Neighbouring Tonbridge and Malling council will be completely replacing 41 car parking machines, which had reached the end of their useful lives, costing £117,861.
Robert Styles, director of Street Scene, Leisure and Technical Services for Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council said: “The car parking machines across Tonbridge and Malling Borough and the lockers at Larkfield Leisure Centre have come to the end of their useful lives and are due for replacement.
“The council has taken a common sense approach and timed the replacements to coincide with the release of the new £1 coin. In this way we have ensured that we have avoided any additional cost burden.”
A refurbishment programme at Larkfield Leisure Centre is seeing new lockers installed, coming in at £44,000.
Lockers at other leisure centres in the borough will need a change of mechanism, but the council said Larkfield’s ones had come to the end of their shelf life, so replacements were timed to coincide with the new pound.
In Tunbridge Wells the bill for changing pay and display machines will come to £6,318.
Private business are also facing a headache. Kent- based family company Ivor Thomas Amusements, which hires and maintains fruit machines and jukeboxes, will have to change more than 2,000 coin-operated machines, costing around £100,000.
Paul Thomas, managing direc- tor, of the Ramsgate firm, said: “This, like any other outside change, is part and parcel of business and it has to be budgeted for.”
Around 3% of £1 coins in circulation in the UK in the last few years have been counterfeit and the government says the new version will be the most secure in the world. Mike Cherry, national chairman at the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “It’s vital the Royal Mint and government use the next six weeks to raise as much awareness of what’s coming for small firms, helping them to avoid any additional administrative and financial costs.
The new £1 was designed by a Walsall schoolboy, who won a competition entered by more than 6,000 people.
The existing coin ceases to be legal tender on October 15.