Independent councillors are calling on Brighton and Hove City Council to look into setting up a paper-based parking voucher scheme.
Rottingdean and West Saltdean councillor Mark Earthey is putting a motion to the council next week after raising concerns about the scrapping of physical parking meters in the city.
The Brighton and Hove Independent councillor plans to ask fellow councillors to recognise that not everyone is able or willing to use a smartphone app or pay by phone.
He wants the council to note that many areas with on-street paid parking are more than a five-minute walk from a PayPoint outlet, such as Kingsway on Hove seafront.
And he wants the council to ask for a report on how a paper parking voucher scheme could be brought in, with vouchers available online, from shops and council offices.
Councillor Earthey, who is being supported by fellow Brighton and Hove Independent councillor Bridget Fishleigh, said: “Our motion is in response to numerous complaints from residents and visitors in many areas of the city about the difficulties with pay by phone. It is not just our ward experiencing problems.
“Pay by phone is clearly not working for all users, not just those who find smartphones challenging.
“The PayPoint alternative appears to have become completely bogged down in bureaucracy and intransigence despite an enthusiastic response by a number of retailers to operate the scheme.
“We need to return to a proven system such as scratch cards which are already in use for visitor parking. It’s not rocket science to widen the scope of the existing system.”
Councillors have called for alternative ways to pay for on-street parking since the council stopped using cash and card parking machines earlier this year. The council is currently removing all the old parking machines.
At the council’s Transport and Sustainability Committee meeting on Tuesday 3 October, Councillor Fishleigh spoke about the lack of PayPoint outlets in Rottingdean, leaving people at risk of parking tickets because the village had a poor mobile phone signal.
A growing number of residents and visitors have spoken publicly about their problems paying for parking since the council stopped using machines.
Some have said that they ended up parking without paying and risked a ticket. With parking charge rises, the difference between the cost of parking and cost of a ticket has narrowed.
The meeting of the full council is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 4.30pm on Thursday 19 October. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
Back in the 90s visitors and shoppers could buy a 24hr scratchcard from any retail outlet in the city and park anywhere in the city for a fiver.
It was a brilliant scheme and parkers often bought something else while they were there so it benefitted local businesses too.
I don’t know what council numpty ever got rid of this scheme as it was the envy of our London friends who came down and tried to get it put into Belgravia too.
Happy days. Bring it back.
BHCC Transport Dept have no interest in doing what’s best for residents and visitors. They only want to extort money from them.
Sack the lot of them
This is a good idea, if the cost of production, distribution and sale of the cards is added to the parking fee, in the same way that there is a 10p surcharge for using the app.
While BHCC constantly drone on about diversity and inclusion, they are clearly guilty of discrimination against the old in this case.
Shocking!
Nah, it’s not specifically age. Technophobic or illiterate with technology, sure. But to just claim it’s purely an age thing? Shocking!
Yes I’ve been saying this exact thing for months both here and the Argus but strangely not one vote of support for the suggestion
Sounds both a sensible and reasonable idea.
Agree with many of the comments here ,Brighton council seem to be happy to treat many locals and visitors with a good level of contempt.
If your ticket machines are too expensive to maintain,put payment cards in shops and outlets.
Who knows maybe people will buy something else while they are there , so a small win for the shops as well.
Really easy to do as well, if there’s a WiFi connection, it’s just the app on a tablet or other cheap screen device.
I totally agree, I am an elderly gentleman who can not operate a smart phone very well. I don’t trust online banking and will never contemplate putting my bank details on my phone. BHCC are treating me and thousands of others with contempt, and to be quote honest I feel discriminated against. To say I am angry about the present latest fad, is an understatement. Why can’t the Council bring back a credit card system, that everyone can use confidently as before.
Unfortunately, people who do not use smart phones or digital services are a minority and rapidly decreasing. However, we aren’t quite there yet, so in the meanwhile, an alternative like tablets set up in shops or physical purchases seem reasonable.
If people are intelligent enough to drive a car, they really should be able to work out how to use a simple payment app. Elderly people are not stupid, my Nan has no trouble using her smart phone and she’s in her late 80s. It’s pretty offensive to suggest otherwise. This is simply virtue signalling from the independent councillors. Stop wasting time and focus on issues which really matter to the city.
This issue really does matter in the city.
This is part of the short sighted policy of discrimination against poorer car users on the false assumption that limiting private transport use will aid in the battle against global warming, poor air quality, and city congestion. For action to limit climate change to work, it needs everyone to be on board which means the majority of UK inhabitants. After 150 years of decentralised suburban development, that means all those dependent on private transport.