Drivers to be able to pay for parking using just ONE app – official MSE News discussion

Nellymoser

Le_Kirk said:

I'll just mention the big problem - lack of signal - until that is sorted in EVERY car park, the new all-in-one app will be useless.

Completely agree.

Useless - exactly the type of paying system the "parking giant" (BPA) and 'come talk to me' (Will Hurley IPC) like to see employed. 

As we've seen evidenced over the years the so called parking management experts give no consideration to a car park's WiFi signal strength before implementing a "pay by app" feature.

coey

Hundreds of thousands of people , many of them vulnerable and elderly , cannot use any App because either they have no phone or only a dumb phone. MSE should be campaigning to ensure all parking charges can be paid for using either debit/credit card or ideally CASH which as far as I am aware is till legal tender in UK.

QrizB

coey said:

.   CASH which as far as I am aware is till legal tender in UK.

About that:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_tender

In the UK legal tender specifically relates to the settlement of debts: a debtor cannot successfully be sued for non-payment if they pay the exact amount (change cannot be demanded) into court in legal tender.
Legal tender is solely for the guaranteed settlement of debts, and does not imply a right to pay with cash in other contexts. There is a misconception that somebody due to be paid a certain amount of money—such as a shopkeeper—must accept legal tender if proffered for payment; in reality the payee may choose to refuse or accept any specific type of payment, whether legal tender or not.

Coupon-mad

coey said:

Hundreds of thousands of people , many of them vulnerable and elderly , cannot use any App because either they have no phone or only a dumb phone. MSE should be campaigning to ensure all parking charges can be paid for using either debit/credit card or ideally CASH 

Totally agree.

Coupon-mad

Just to add though that the last Government said this in 2023:

https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/17/levelling-up-housing-and-communities-committee/news/195068/car-parking-charges-and-use-of-parking-apps-government-responds-to-levelling-up-committee-questions/

"I look forward to further updates from Ministers on how they intend to facilitate the wider roll-out of the National Parking Platform and ensure that there are suitable provisions for people to make parking payments to ensure no-one is digitally excluded.”

It remains to be seen how Labour cover this in the new statutory Code of Practice.

ChirpyChicken

I think this is a positive development and in the end we will see a decline in the number of payment apps which will be a good thing as they dont drive the price of parking 

Car1980

There is one problem - the pay on exit apps where YOU have to remember when you parked.

How is that being dealt with?

For a lot of people it's not easy to recall - to the nearest 15 minutes - when you entered the car park. Especially if it was 3 or 4 hours ago.

Paying on exit at a ticket machine will do this automatically for you. But not all apps will.

We've seen some locations where the link with the ANPR has been severed purposely. "Your Parking Space" is a prime example. It knows you have entered the car park - and so must know the time - because it won't allow payment if you aren't physically there. But it forces you to input the time.