Car park woes as councils swap coin payment machines for apps
Withdrawal of coin-operated machines in main UK towns and cities leaves apps as sole option
Image: Matt Cardy/Getty Images
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by John Evans
3 mins read
30 April 2025
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Coin-operated onstreet parking machines are being decommissioned in favour of smartphone apps, despite complaints by some drivers that parking apps are expensive and unreliable.
The latest area to be hit is Guildford, which, in the past month, has had two-thirds of its town centre parking machines disabled, with notices taped to them advising motorists to pay using the RingGo app.
Surrey County Council said the decision was due to ageing machines, adding: “It costs more to collect cash and maintain many of the machines than they collect in income.”
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However, not all motorists are happy. Autocar spoke to one driver as she struggled to use one of the new machines in the town. “My phone can’t establish a connection [to the RingGo app],” she said. “I’m already late for an appointment and don’t have time to waste trying to buy a ticket. I expect I shall be fined.”
Later at the same machine, an elderly couple were also unhappy about the change. “We don’t like downloading and using apps and would much rather use coins or contactless payment,” they said. “At least we have a smartphone. Many of our friends don’t. We will have to find another parking space.”
In response, Surrey County Council said the connection issues were “isolated” and “motorists who would like to pay with coins are able to park in alternative locations”.
In contrast, Brighton and Hove City Council is considering whether to recommission the 12 contactless payment machines it had switched off in its city centre last year.
It recently concluded a three-month trial of the recommissioned machines, and feedback from drivers has indicated that they are more popular than paying by apps.
Speaking to BBC Radio Sussex, Joyce Collins, 90, said: “I don’t know anything about apps. I don’t take my car into the city especially because I don’t know about the parking.”
Another local resident, Christina Westwell, said: “If we have to use an app, we just drive off. I don’t want to have to go online.”
A spokesperson for the AA said parking apps are not popular with many of its members, adding: “They prefer to pay using chip and pin and get angry with parking apps that won’t connect or carry extra charges. Councils make it difficult to pay then make it more expensive to pay. It’s a real mess.”
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In 2023, RingGo generated a record £30 million in parking fees. The money came from the fees it charges councils for managing payments.
The company is one of many app-based parking firms that also include JustPark and PayByPhone.
In an effort to simplify cashless parking, the Department for Transport (DfT) recently created the National Parking Platform. Currently still being trialled, it unites five apps under one system and today handles almost 500,000 parking transactions per month in 473 UK locations.
Replying to criticisms of parking apps, the DfT said: “The government inherited an extremely challenging financial picture, but we are fixing the foundations, which includes making decisions about how to deliver projects where the gap between promised schemes and the money available has become clear.”
