Car parks not ready for new £1

More than one in five UK councils have still not converted all their parking ticket machines to accept the new £1 coin, an investigation has found.

Drivers embarking on trips to popular tourist destinations from Devon to the Scottish Highlands risk being hit with hefty fines because of the outof-date infrastructure, according to the AA.

The new 12-sided pound coin entered circulation in March, boasting new high-tech security features to thwart counterfeiters.

Responses to a Freedom of Information request issued by the AA revealed that 74 out of 340 councils (22 per cent) with responsibility for car parks with coin-operated machines have not updated them all to allow payment by the new coins.

The motoring organisation said the issue is “not the drivers’ fault” and called for parking rules to be relaxed until the problem is resolved.