Issue - meetings

Report ES19066

The Council has an ongoing policy to remove Pay and Display (P&D) machines from on-street locations where they are low in use and/or prone to vandalism and Report ES19066 proposed a more proactive approach to removing P&D machines where only “cashless” mobile phone payment can be retained. Cashless parking payments can be made via a phone call or by using an App; the system is currently administered by a company called RingGo.

Mobile Phone Parking has proved successful with about 50% of income received by this cashless system on average. A reduced number of cash payments and machines create savings through fewer cash collections, less machine maintenance, fewer machine upgrades and air time. Vandalism is also reduced and Mobile Phone Parking is more environmentally friendly with fewer vehicles collecting cash. Cash theft from machines is also denied and consumer behaviour insight from data can be used to influence parking policies and high street trends.

Officers reviewed under-utilised P&D machines where payments are predominantly cashless (mobile phone only). Should machines be removed, nearby machines will need relocating, in some cases to retain a cash payment option. However, many roads will become cashless only and roads recommended for removal of machines will need additional RingGo signage to show tariffs and operating days/times. In total, 35 machines were recommended for removal in the following locations:

•  Copers Cope Ward – removing all nine machines in the area and converting it to RingGo only except for part of Beckenham High Street where machines will be reduced from two to one;

•  Clockhouse Ward – removing all eight machines, converting the area to RingGo;

•  Orpington, Petts Wood & Knoll, Farnborough & Crofton Wards –removing all 11 machines in the outer part of the High Street making the area RingGO only with the main High Street still having P&D machines; and 

•  Bromley Town Ward – removing six machines from the area and relocate other machines so that all but one of the roads has a pay and display machine as well as RingGo option, the only exception being Meadow Road as RingGo only.

A change was also recommended to enforcement policy so if all an area’s P&D machines are out of order, a customer has to either pay to park via RingGo or find parking where payment can be made by cash. Although P&D machines can be unreliable, it is worthy of note that RingGo has proved reliable since going live in April 2017 (it has not been necessary for the Council to apply a default for the system not working).

Details of the specific roads and income taken by P&D machines were appended to Report ES19066. Equivalent RingGo income for the zone locations from August 2018 to July 2019 was also outlined as were costs for removing the cash payment machines. Likely Council savings at locations for the remainder of the parking contract were also detailed (the Council will bear the cost of P  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30