Social media
There was a furious reaction to a post on our Facebook page about parking meters in Oban still not accepting the new £1 coins.
Nikki Warham blasted: ‘ I’ve not got a ticket because I was lucky enough there was someone there I could swap a coin with but it’s ridiculous! There’s not enough free parking on town never mind the parking we have doesn’t take the new coins! In my opinion if anyone has received a ticket it should be scrapped and any money paid should be refunded! How is it a drivers fault that the meters don’t take the coins?’
Ruari Armstrong wrote: ‘ The parking situation in general is a problem in Oban. Multi storey car parked is the answer or do we need to wait another 30 years just like the pontoon. Location??? Old rockfield school grounds.’
Amira Trehan posted: ‘It’s a crazy situation. I had a stock of old pound coins but have used them all myself and helping out other people. I suppose we all have to carry a sack of 50p coins around now. Fix it, or get machines that accept a card payment - but you can’t fine people in the meantime.’
Sian Griffiths said: ‘It’s not very long ago that some of the machines did not accept the ‘new’ 10p and 5p pieces so I dread to think how long it will be before they update for the pound coins. Also parking is now so expensive that they should have machines that accept card payments. How many people actually carry £8 of change with them nowadays?’ Jenny Low explained: ‘I tried to buy a ticket with a new pound coin the other day but the machine wouldn’t
accept it. Luckily for me I had enough in 5p’s to pay for a ticket! Not so lucky for whoever empties the machine. Oh well... Maybe if everyone does the same they’ll get their finger out and do something about it!’
Kerryanne Ramsay offered: ‘ There is a parking meter right outside my work, and without fail at least once a day if not more we have people in asking us to change pound coin, this is fine if we have them but a lot of the time we don’t. We have also has a lot of tourists and foreign holiday makers in asking us for directions to machines where the new coins are accepted. So not only have strangers to the town, to know to have old coins for the meter, but they are to know where to find other machines in streets in a town they’ve most likely never been.’