Council approves £2.5 million investment to introduce ticketless machines in car parks across North Yorkshire

Members of North Yorkshire Council’s executive have agreed to replace all 429 parking machines with new solar-powered ticketless devices which can accept card, cash and app payments.

Council bosses say the move will deliver almost £590,000 a year in efficiency savings once the new machines are installed.

The pay and display machines were installed by the former borough and district councils and are up to 20 years old.

Officials say many of the machines are nearing the end of their life, with spare parts no longer available for machines used in the Richmondshire area.

North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for highways and transportation, Councillor Keane Duncan, told the meeting: “This is a record investment package for our car parks of almost £2.5m.

“This will deliver much-needed improvements ensuring our car parks are easier to use, safer and more efficient than ever before.

“It’s fair to say that right now some of our car parks do appear unwelcoming, they’re in a poor state of repair and most critically the technology is outdated.

“Most of the machines are approaching the end of their working life.

"Ninety per cent of them are more than a decade old and some are now 20 years old.

“They’re prone to glitches and we know that can be a very frustrating experience for users.

“We also know that visitors are often very surprised to find that some of our car parks only accept cash payments.”

The council has already also to spend £400,000 replacing old sodium lighting with new LED lights to improve safety and security.

By replacing the conventional 150w lanterns with 80w LED equivalents, the council says it will save around £85 per lamp per year.

The entrance system at the Jubilee and Victoria multi-storey car parks in Harrogate will be changed from barrier-controlled automatic number plate recognition systems to pay and display as part of the improvements.

The council has recently agreed to increase car parking charges for the second year in a row.

The ten per cent increase in on and off-street parking tariffs could bring in almost £2m in extra income a year, council officers say.

No decision has yet been taken on whether to spend around £270,000 on replacing signage in the car parks.

The authority is looking at whether it needs to replace old borough and district council signage with new North Yorkshire Council-branded signs, a proposal which has attracted criticism from opposition councillors.