Bath to reduce parking machines as more pay digitally

The base price of a BANES residents' parking permit will remain at £100 a year with a second permit costing £160

The number of pay and display machines in Bath and North East Somerset (BANES) is being reduced as more people switch to paying for their parking digitally.

The authority said the number of people using a parking app now accounts for more than half of all transactions.

On-street residents parking permits will also become digital and be charged according to a vehicles emissions.

The changes follow a period of "extensive consultation".

Councillor Manda Rigby said it was part of "wider plans to achieve better air quality and encourage people to switch to low emission vehicles".

Other changes include:

• Moving long-stay visitor parking to off-street car parks and the introduction of digitised hotel, guest house and holiday let permits

• The introduction of half-day paper visitor permits to support vulnerable residents unable to access the financial savings offered by digital permits

• An increase in on-street parking charges of 10p per hour including charging on Sundays

• All residents parking zones are now also operational on Sundays

Ms Rigby, who is also the cabinet member for transport, said: "It's the first time in eight years that we have increased our permit charges.

"The new system makes charging fairer and rebalances parking provision in favour of residents."

Vehicles are placed in a charging band according to their recorded CO2 emissions with the DVLA, or engine size where CO2 information is missing.

The council said revenue from the permit scheme will continue to pay for running costs with any surplus used to support the development of sustainable transport schemes across the area.

Residents can check DVLA records to confirm their emissions, or engine capacity, online.