Police in Hastings have taken to Facebook to appeal to the council to make it easier to pay for parking after a visiting Belgian couple were unable to pay online or by phone.
It follows the removal of parking machines all over Sussex, which allowed people to use bank cards or coins to pay for parking.
Much of the parking in the county has gone online with apps such as Ringo or Pay-By-Phone now in use.
However, for people without a smart phone, parking has become so difficult that many say they have given up on visiting Sussex's town centres altogether.
A Belgian couple recently visiting Hastings, found themselves unable to pay for parking as they did not have a UK phone number and their car had a foreign number plate not recognised on the online system.
This prompted Hastings police officers, who happened to be passing, to take to their Facebook page and make a direct appeal to the council to consider how this could be handled in future. They said:
While on foot patrol in Hastings Town Centre, we came across a Belgian couple struggling with our local parking meters, which now predominantly require the Ringo App for cashless payment. The couple couldn't download the app due to not having a UK mobile number, and their foreign vehicle registration number plate wasn't recognised by the system.
Understandably they were disappointed, as they were looking forward to a relaxing walk along the sea front and spending some time exploring the town.
After checking all machines close by, we finally found one that took coins, and we helped them to navigate the meter to obtain a valid ticket.
With many people not having a smartphone or the Ringo App, we felt it prudent to raise the issue with the parking warden's office for future consideration.
Posted on the afternoon of May 1, the post has since received 585 comments and 178 shares (as of 7.30am this morning, May 2), mostly praising police for helping the visitors and bemoaning the lack of cash parking machines in the county.
Comments posted include:
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