Motorists lose out on £38k in three years to Newark and Sherwood District Council through changeless carpark ticket machines
Motorists lost out on tens of thousands of pounds in the last three years through changeless ticket machines.
Newark and Sherwood District Council pulled in more than £38,000 between 2015-18, a Freedom of Information Act request has revealed.
The council made more than £13,000 of that in 2017-18 alone.
Harry Fone, grassroots campaign manager at the Tax Payers' Alliance, said: "This is a example of a greedy council squeezing more money out of already heavily taxed motorists.
"In an increasingly cashless society, it is not convenient for many people to carry around oodles of change for every circumstance.
"Rather than fleecing users of their carparks, the council should upgrade its equipment to issue correct change."
The request to the district council showed the revenue taken by changeless ticket machines was £10,819.25 in 2015-16.
In 2016-17, this number rose to £14,037.53.
In response, the council said as with most local authority-owned carparks it does not give change, but that overpayments are reinvested into council services.
A spokesman said: "In general we are looking at increasing cashless options for payments across council services and all council-owned pay and display parking machines, and offering the Ringo cashless payment option to pay via the app or over the phone.
"We will also be introducing new pay-and-display machines next year throughout our carparks with further cashless options, including contactless and chip and pin, alongside the existing option of paying on Ringo."
The council said ticket machines that give change are more expensive and need substantial floats, which pose a greater risk in terms of theft.
"If customers prefer to pay by cash we would advise them to have the correct change," it said.
Anyone who downloads the Ringo app can pay in any one of the district council's carparks.
The carpark at Castle House, where Newark and Sherwood District Council is based, is only one of seven carparks offering contactless payments.
Ringo is available at these carparks:
- Castle House Carparks
- Town Wharf Carpark (short stay)
- Appletongate Carpark (short stay)
- London Road/Baldertongate Carpark (short stay)
- Riverside Carpark (long stay)
- Livestock Market Carpark (long stay)
- Forest Road Carpark, Ollerton
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