The Daily Telegraph

No service is no excuse if you can’t pay for parking on app

- By Henry Bodkin

RUNNING out of phone battery will not save drivers from being given a parking ticket, a council has said, amid a row over cashless parking.

Age campaigner­s have warned that the increasing reliance by local authoritie­s, such as Merton, on payment apps risks “leaving behind” pensioners who are less adept with mobile phones.

The London borough plans to axe hundreds of pay-and-display machines as three-quarters of users now pay to park through the Ringgo app.

Council documents show that parking penalties would be enforced even in cases where drivers are unable to pay by Ringgo because their phone battery or credit has run out, or the phone has no signal.

“You should always ensure that you have the means to pay for parking,” it says. “If you are unable to use your phone you should pay with cash at a ticket machine. We would not cancel a PCN [penalty charge notice] in these circumstan­ces.”

Merton’s cabinet last year agreed to remove 334 “low use” on-street pay and display machines, although all car parks will retain cash payment machines.

A spokesman said drivers would still have access to machines, but the disposal of so many raises the prospect of drivers having to leave their vehicles to find one. It comes amid wider concerns that motorists parking at cashless car parks in beauty spots around the country are risking fines because they cannot get reception on their phones.

One father who took his children to Epping Forest, near London, on Easter Sunday was unable to get a signal on three separate networks.

Cashless parking in particular is blamed for penalising older motorists.

Morgan Vine, head of policy and influencin­g at Independen­t Age, said: “If councils rush to make car park payments cashless, they risk leaving many people behind. Lots of older people are comfortabl­e making payments by card, however, cash is still a lifeline for some people in later life who live in areas with poor Wi-fi signal, have concerns about scams or a lack of experience using certain forms of digital payments.

Caroline Abrahams, director of Age UK, said: “Cash is the go-to payment method for many older people, including when they park their car, but many local car parks are no longer accepting cash as a payment method anymore.

“If you don’t have a smartphone or a credit card, the more modern parking machines that don’t take hard cash are no use to you at all, making it even harder to find somewhere to park than it often already is.”

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom