Councillors Call For Alternative Parking Payment Methods In Brighton

Paying for parking without a smartphone has proved difficult for one member of the public at a time when councillors have called for more alternative options.

Brighton resident Christopher Lewis was unable to pay for on-street parking at three shops in the Western Road area when he went to help a friend on his way home from work.

Mr Lewis, 50, does not use a smartphone and has previously successfully paid for parking using the PayPoint system at various shops in Western Road.

But the machines were not working when he tried two shops there on Friday 21 July. He said that a third refused to carry out the transaction because they make too little money from it.

He said:

"I don’t want to use mobile internet or a smartphone so I don’t have another option to pay for parking now the meters are gone. Removing them discriminates against those of us who use cash.

"In the end, I took a risk and didn’t pay for parking. Thankfully, I didn’t get a ticket as otherwise it would be an expensive hour."

PayPoint said:

"Brighton and Hove City Council has worked with PayPoint for a number of years and we are disappointed to learn that the retailers in the area were unable to process the parking transaction.

"It’s why our retail standards team will be contacting the stores that have been identified to offer training on how to process, as all stores within the area have the ability to perform a ‘pay by phone’ transaction.

"In addition, we will also ask the retail relationship manager to visit the stores to offer any further training."

PayPoint said that it offered refresher training on using its machines and to remind retailers of the company’s commitment to customers using PayPoint services.

Councillors have continued to call for alternative ways to pay for on-street parking after since the council stopped using cash and card parking machines earlier this year. The council is currently removing all the old machines.

Conservative councillor Carol Theobald called for the council to bring back scratch cards as an alternative to paying by phone which she said was discriminatory.

At a recent council meeting, Councillor Theobald said that many older residents and visitors either had no smartphone or lacked the digital skills to pay for their parking online.

She said:

"It hardly encourages visitors to spend their money in the city. Labour and Green have chosen to ignore the budget report that there is a risk and adverse impact around digital exclusion and cash card facilities would not be available."

Councillor Theobald said that people were risking a fine because of the time that it took to find a shop where they could pay for their parking.

She added:

"Our residents in Patcham and Hollingbury and Westdene and Hove Park are hostile to the removal of pay and display – as are many other residents judging by communications."

Labour councillor Trevor Muten, who chairs the council’s Transport and Sustainability Committee, said that the old parking machines relied on the Vodafone 3G network which is being discontinued.

Upgrading the machines to 4G or 5G would be too costly, he said, resulting in the move to telephone, smartphone or PayPoint payments since the end of May.

In a written response to questions from fellow councillors, he said:

"Drivers who cannot telephone to pay for parking or those without smartphones can pay for parking by cash or card at any shop in the city with the PayPoint sign.

"There are over 150 vendors across our city with PayPoint and they are mostly found in newsagents or supermarkets."

The council used to operate a parking voucher scheme but this was deemed “unviable” because of printing and distribution costs.

A petition signed by 217 people called for a return to cash payment. It was referred to the Transport and Sustainability Committee’s next meeting. The council has not yet published the date of the meeting.