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.
And how are we to know how much the parking costs now the meters are covered up? Does the paypoint shop know the rates? What happens when we arrive at the shop then find out the parking isn’t an acceptable price?
Greedy buggers. Introduce parking meters in places that never had them to increase revenue and then can’t be bothered to install meters. Greedy greedy it’s not a nice word but that’s how it looks.
Those machines aren’t that old they were put in only a few years ago even though they aren’t old they’re bloody slow and useless takes ages to keep putting registration in then it goes clear so frustrating could have put a coin in and completed it in 30 secs
The greedy buggers at the council want you to use the app cause they charge for the use of it! It’s just more tax money from car owners who can’t park that easily as they’ve tarmac’s a lot of space over
I tried to use two of the machines in the car park above Morrisons in St James’s Street, Brighton but neither would allow me to pay by cash as they used to. Fortunately I had my debit card with me as I had an appointment nearby!
They should at least where possible to replace them with Electric car chargers. They already have electricity going into them.
Do they ? – they all have solar panels on top and a battery
Parking vouchers may be deemed ‘unviable’ due to costs, but there’s an easy remedy for that: pass the costs on to those that want to use the service that way.
Those of us that embrace the efficiency and productivity savings of digital will get cheaper parking, and those that want to use cash can pay for the cost of doing so.
You do pay for embracing the efficiency and productivity saving of digital, as you are charged an additional 10p admin fee (+ any network cost applicable).
Excellent – thanks! That sets the benchmark for the minimum cost per paper permit, improving the viability of that method for cash users.
Perhaps the council could outsource printing and distribution of vouchers and they get paid a proportion of the revenue as PayByPhone does?
After all the decision to stop using meters for cash or card has only cost therm black plastic bags and sticky tape.
Interesting that the end of 3g is given as the reason for this – same as the death of Brighton BikeShare – when this has been known for some time and O2 has not announced a date for the service to end – we’re all the options really investigated?
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/advice/3g-switch-off
Or is the real reason that Labour, like the Greens, just hate motorists and can’t be bothered to do anything to help?
Bearing in mind 4G and 2G were also available then and remain so, one has to wonder made the decision to buy the bikes and the meters. Ofcom were talking about the switch off of 3g in 2021.
I have elderly friends who were going to double up in cars and have an afternoon in Stanmer Park. Unfortunately when they found out that the only way to pay for parking was with a parking app which none of them had ever had cause to use, they just had to cancel the trip. If they could have paid contactless I’m sure they would have done that.
Stanmer park is a disaster lots of elderly visitors. Lots of visitors.
Poor signal and the only paypoint at the university!
I guess many of our city’s ‘decision makers’ enjoy the anxiety that trying to park in this city causes.
Paying by app the greedy council charges 30p extra so called admin charges ( but as if a shop keeper charged more for a credit or debit card instead of cash that would be illegal )
PayByPhone service charges
There’s a 10p service charge for each transaction.
There are other optional charges for additional message alerts and receipts, both cost 10p for each message.
The option for these can be changed in the default settings.
I thought there was a number you could call to pay for parking rather than using the app?!
This is one of the reasons I didn’t buy another car after mine was written off. Live has many stresses and paying for parking, or rather TRYING TO PAY for parking is one stress I could live without
I thought with a change of council, things may change for the better. I bet councillors don’t pay to park.
Everywhere is same problem.
I have to park in Hove once a month and every time I have tried to use the app it says “unknown location” so it is a waste of time trying. Have had to go to the pay by phone option as there’s no shop nearby and you run the risk of getting a ticket by the time you get back to the car and I have no mobility issues. Someone more elderly or someone with mobility issues unable to use technology is totally scuppered. This is a form of discrimination.
Plus, still charged an Admin fee, despite there being no alternative
I succeeded in defeating a parking charge from the notoriously aggressive Borough of Barnet, in London, citing the same considerations made by many here: discrimination against poor, elderly, and disabled, and the difficulty in finding and paying in a PayPoint shop. Barnet chose not to attend the Tribunal hearing… I guess to avoid creating another precedent with the tribunal decision – Barnet has form in prompting the ire of the London Tribunal. I have since read that appeals tribunals have decided that the time taken in finding and paying at a PayPoint cannot be held against the motorist… it is up to the local Council to ensure that its payment methods are fair, timely, transparent and practical. Good luck to all in Brighton and Hove with this. Being disabled, I have given up hope of visiting the area again… active travel, my a**se!
I was planning to visit old friends of mine, in what was my town of birth, something I haven’t done since before lockdown, but if its that visitor unfriendly I don’t think I’ll bother.
Bhcc have been a bit lax….again.
I’ve been into 3 shops that operate Paypoint. I asked them if they did the parking scheme. All said ‘No’.
The link on the Council website gives you the location of ALL Paypoint shops – but not all do the parking scheme. The Council is acting in a discriminatory manner AND providing incorrect info.
It really needs to get its @rse in gear
Well you guys keep voting these idiots in!
I don’t even try to pay any more. I refuse to jump through their hoops. I won’t pay their PCNs either.
Brighton is the most anti visitor place I know; avoid
I got round it by doing all my shopping in other towns
Saying that it is too costly to upgrade the existing pay and display machines is a lie, when you consider the obscene surplus made from parking charges.
Hopefully the council will reconsider, once they realise that when you give people no viable options for payment, that many will just not pay.
The damn app wouldn’t accept my payment card. Tried speaking with the company that runs the app, just got hold of a useless bot and an automated reply from customer services saying they’ll reply within 2 business days – which didnt help me to park at the time, i needed an immediate response. Thankfully a stranger paid for my parking but it does mean he’s now got a record of my reg number in his app.
Paypoint is a bit random. I needed to park in Hove this week and walked to the Paypoint shop. Had to teach the kid behind the counter how to use his own software. Got to the end of it – and then he asked for Cash as there is no way in the Paypoint system to allow for the credit card surcharge from their machines. Lack of cash on me meant I had to negotiate a parking cost with the kid. Bought some sandwiches and suggested he just added 50p. Must have taken us 10mins to sort out.
It is a weird way to operate in a tourist town.
As a tradesman I’ll now just avoid jobs in the city unless the client can provide their own parking vouchers. Just not worth the hassle.
I’ve tried to pay at paypoint shops. You have to know the location number of where you are parking before paying. That mean’s you have to park… Then you have to find a shop with pay point (I don’t have a smart phone to look them up on.. Other wise I’d have just used it to park! And I called into the council reception at Hove town hall, and they didn’t have a list of the pay point shops!). I have restricted mobility as do many
older people. By the time I’ve parked, found a paypoint shop, walked back to where I’ve parked, I’m exhausted and just want to go home. It’s so discriminatory and exacerbating our isolation and exclusion. So so many people are unfairly affected by this. Scratch off pre paid vouchers would help a great deal. Please will councillors listen and act!
Sara Pelling (B&H Older People’s Council)
My experience today of trying to use the app at king Alfred Leisure centre car park ended up with us leaving the car park and going elsewhere . It wanted a car reg, but every time I attempted to enter it, the app told me it was already registered. When I tried to enter a duration for my stay it told me car details were needed. I was advised by a car park user to update my app on the App Store. This wasn’t possible so I deleted the app and reinstalled it. Then it wouldn’t accept my Visa card or let me use Apple Pay. I’m not completely useless with my smart phone but couldn’t get the system to work. How elderly or non smart phone users cope I don’t know!
Local businesses will lose out, so they should pressurise the council to amend their errors.
I know how about free parking! There’s a public friendly way.
I shall think twice about visiting Brighton by car again.
I’ve lived in this now god forsaken Town for 30 years,I’m now looking to get out of it,not just because of parking but how run down & generally nasty it’s become with the current green & labour council’s, can’t wait to get out of this dump.
Visited Brighton recently. Met with an appalling unusable parking regime. Does the Council really want visitors who come to the area and spend money in shops, restaurants etc? In particular Stanmer Park where there is the usual pay by app system. I was perfectly willing to pay the car park fee despite only wanting to stop for long enough to photograph the Wild In Art sculpture and have a cuppa.
The signal to reach the app was very weak. The staff at the tearoom informed me that many people experience problems in accessing the app. Just when I thought I had cracked it a payment went through, not to Brighton & Hove City Council but to a company based in Cyprus (yes Cyprus!) which apparently had hacked into my communication. This was flagged up by my credit card company which stopped my card.
I have found it impossible to contact the Council via the online contact form as it requires a postcode for the car park concerned. I couldn’t find a postcode and abandoned my attempt. Not sure that a car park would have a postcode anyway! Brighton Council could not be contacted by telephone on the day.
It’s about time that Brighton Council encouraged visitors. My experience has been the direct opposite. I will be most reluctant to visit the area in the future.