Pay-by-phone parking plan on the way
Tuesday 21st December 2010, 11:30AM GMT.
Pay-by-phone parking is on its way to parts of the Black Country in a move to draw more shoppers into town centres.
Visitors to Walsall Council pay and display car parks will be able to use debit and credit cards rather than search for change to put in machines.
And Wolverhampton City Council said it is looking into bringing the technology to its own car parks in the future.
The firm details of the plans are being finalised but council chiefs in Walsall are aiming to get it up and running by the end of April.
The idea of calling a designated number to make a payment was first mooted 18 months ago but did not get off the ground.
Transport councillor Tom Ansell said: “We are looking at the introduction of a system to pay parking charges by credit or debit card, which people have told us they would find more convenient.
“This would apply to pay and display car parks only and we are investigating a system where people would phone in their details rather than use their cards in a machine on site.
“We would want to introduce this within the next financial year and are talking to a couple of companies about it.”
Wolverhampton City Council spokesman Paul Brown said: “Drivers cannot currently pay to park by phone but this is something we are going to look at at some point in the future.”
Paying to park by phone has been successfully used in other parts of the country, with Birmingham the only place in the West Midlands that operates the service.
Drivers call an automated service to register their details, or can text a number to give information about their car and how long they are staying. Parking attendants can then check who has paid through hand-held units.
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This willencourage people who work in town to use the council car parks more frequently as carrying the bucketfulls of change required each day is ridiculous.
What however is killing the town is the ridiculously high prices charged by the council for parking, they are undercut by so many private contractors that with each raise in parking charges the amount of cars on the parks clearly reduces.
Why should people come into Walsall Town centre when you have to pay to park miles away from teh reducing numebr of shops and stalls and you might not find what you want, when the alternative is to pull up outside a retail centre, get what you want and pay nothing.
The massive car park at Tesco will further eat away at the councils pakring revenue unless it makes a complete overhaul of the pricing. An empty space at £5 earns nothing. A full one at £2 earns £2.
Will the ability to pay via debit card allow the purchase of 7 days of parking in any council car park for a massively reduced rate? Say £10? Then the car parks will be full,people will come into town, shops will open and rates income will increase.
And look you don’t even have to pay me £50K in consultancy fees for this idea.
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It still means it costs money to park however you pay. we pay enough in tax and road insurance and try to go to places that do not charge for parking.
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pay to park in walsall the best thing about walsall are the roads out of the place
anyone remember the comments from the american journalist a few yrs ago its till no better
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Surely the best way to encourage people to go into shops and spend money is to provide free car parking. Simples eh?
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WOW I am encouraged already to shop at the Merryhill Centre where all my credit cards can be used to spend on lovely goods and not parking. Wise up councils, do you think you are doing us a favour?? Free parking is what people want not what you have to offer. Long live Merryhill the place shoppers are looked after and encouraged to spend money!!
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