Pay by phone parking

by Lisa Reeves

Thursday 27^th October 2011

Thu 27^th Oct 2011

A new service is being introduced to enable motorists to pay for their parking via their mobile phone.

The new payment option will be trialled in the South Street and West Street car parks in Alderley Edge from Monday, October 31st.

Supplied by RingGo the service allows drivers to use a credit or debit card, to pay for parking, using a mobile phone by calling 020 3046 0010.

Cheshire East Councillor Rod Menlove, Cabinet member with responsibility for environmental services, said: "We understand that motorists do not always have loose change available to pay for car parks. We wanted to give people the option of paying by phone. There is no need to carry any cash or use the ticket machine, you just need a mobile phone.

"You don't even need to put a ticket in your window, as our enforcement officers will be able to check that fees have been paid, using RingGo, via their handheld units. First-time users can register with RingGo by telephoning the service or by logging on to www.myringgo.co.uk/register.

"Should your meeting or shopping trip overrun, you can even give RingGo a quick call and extend your length of stay, without returning to your car.

"I hope motorists find that this trial has a positive impact on how they use local car parks."

The initial trial will be available in 18 car parks across Cheshire East, including Broadway Meadow, South Drive (long and short stay car parks) and Spring Street multi-storey car parks in Wilmslow.

Payment by coins will still be available in these car parks.

Photo: Cheshire East Councillor Rod Menlove, Cabinet member with responsibility for environmental services.

Tags:: Cheshire East Council, Parking

Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Andrew Malloy

Friday 28^th October 2011 at 9:55 am

Watch out, RingGo charge an additional 20p "Convenience Fee" on top of the parking charge. Also 10p per text for acknowledgements or when you want to extend your parking. So 1hours of parking could cost 90p vs 60p if you pay with cash.
But if you don't have any change, it's useful,and you can get VAT receipts online, good for company expenses.

Frank Keegan

Friday 28^th October 2011 at 11:35 am

But the good news is that you can avoid a penalty ticket by ringing/texting RinGo.

It will be an interesting experiment. If you start out with a ticket from 9am to 11am, can that be extended by RinGo?

Good to see it starting gently with South St, where a majority of the cars seem to choose the 10 hour tariff.

Dave Moores

Tuesday 1^st November 2011 at 2:20 pm

Let's hope it works better than the 'pay by mobile' service used on Motorway Service Areas. That truly is painful!

David Dorgan

Tuesday 1^st November 2011 at 3:24 pm

It may cost 20p to use but if you have a meeting or appointment that runs a lot shorter than anticipated at least you will not have lost the unused money to the meter.

Marc Asquith

Friday 4^th November 2011 at 10:13 am

I have found using the pay by phone system in London where there is no option to pay with money totally painful. I thoroughly hate it. The instructions on the machines are in too small a print to read without my reading glasses. The registration process and payment process are interminable. Please keep the option to chuck a few coins in a slot available.

Friday 4^th November 2011 at 2:31 pm

Marc,

There will still be the option to feed the meter: the first issue is going to be car A pays by RinGo and can extend if the car owner wishes, but car B pays by ticket and at the end of the time, has to move the car and may not return for 1 hour.

Needs harmonising.