York on-street parking to go cashless to cut council costs

On-street parking is set to turn cashless in York

On-street parking in York will soon go cashless, the city council has confirmed.

It said the move to cashless parking would save money, as £60,000 per year was spent on emptying payment machines.

All council-run car parks in York were also due to scrap cash payments, but this was amended after strong feedback from residents.

The Bootham Row and Castle car parks will continue to accept coin payments, the council said.

A public consultation received 793 responses, some of which argued that people without smartphones or contactless methods of payment would not be able to park.

York disability campaigner Flick Williams added that a digital trail could negatively affect people in coercive relationships and that there was a general "mistrust" of giving third-party apps bank details.

She also feared what would happen if the digital system "went down".

'Find a compromise'

Following a public meeting on Tuesday, Councillor Pete Kilbane, Deputy Leader of the Council and Executive Member for Transport and Economy, said City of York Council had "listened to the concerns of residents".

He said: "We sought to find a compromise which allows people to continue to pay cash, while making much-needed savings for the council.

"While going completely cashless would have saved more money, after seeing some of the feedback we received about the importance of retaining cash payments, it was clear that going fully cashless would make York inaccessible to a number of people."

Out of 1.5m transactions in the last year, 10% of the parking income in York was from cash payments.

On-street parking made up 6% of parking income in York and more than 50 parking machines would have needed an upgrade at "significant cost" if cash payments remained, the council said.

It added that more information would be shared ahead of the changes coming into effect.