Machines to be removed as most of council parking goes cashless

In the coming weeks a number of parking machines will be removed as the council moves to cashless parking.

In February it was agreed at a decision session that the majority of the council’s car parking would go cashless as the council looked to save money by removing the costs of maintaining machines and also avoiding the risk of thefts.

This followed a consultation with residents in the Summer of 2023 which proposed removing all cash payment machines in council car parks. However, after feedback from the consultation it was agreed that cash payments would still be accepted in two council car parks, Bootham Row and Castle Car Park.

Councillor Kate Ravilious, Executive Member for Transport said: “Ahead of the changes being made as we move to cashless on-street parking we wanted to update residents.

“While 90% of payments are made by credit card we are aware that some still prefer to pay cash so want to support them through this change. After listening to feedback we are keeping machines for people to pay by cash in at Bootham Row and Castle Car Park.”

Currently out of over 1.5 million transactions in the last year 10 per cent of the parking income was from cash payments. On street parking accounts for 6 per cent of parking income in the city and there would have been a need to upgrade over 50 parking machines at significant cost.

In the coming weeks on-street car parking machines will be removed. Information stickers will be added to machines to give residents early warning. Blue badge holders can continue to park free as per usual.

For information on how to pay for car parking by phone go to: https://www.york.gov.uk/PayParkingByPhone