Resident feedback brings changes to cashless parking plans

The Executive Member for Economy and Transport has agreed to allow cash payments to continue in two council car parks following strong resident feedback.

The decision was made at a public meeting this week (20 February).

In July 2023 it was agreed that the council would go out to consultation on plans to move all council car parking to cashless payments to save money by removing the costs of maintaining machines and avoiding the risk of thefts.

However, during that consultation a number of responses came in from the public explaining why they needed to be able to pay cash. Reasons included not having contactless methods or a smart device to use cashless parking. Finding the process too difficult to use and the need to avoid leaving a digital trail were also shared as concerns.

Upon receiving the feedback Cllr Kilbane agreed to two council car parks continuing to receive cash payments. These will be Bootham Row and Castle Car Park, which are the Gold Standard car parks identified in the access review.

Following the meeting, Councillor Pete Kilbane, Deputy Leader of the Council and Executive Member for Transport and Economy said: “I want to thank the hundreds of people who took the time to respond to our consultation. We have listened to the concerns of residents and sought to find a compromise which allows people to continue to pay cash, while making much needed savings for the council.

“While going completely cashless would have saved more money, after seeing some of the feedback we received about the importance of retaining cash payments, it was clear that going fully cashless would make York inaccessible to a number of people. This is why we have taken action and adapted our plans to ensure cash payments can continue in two of our car parks.

“We are rightly proud of our city centre and with equalities a key principle of this administration it is only right we listen to the consultation feedback and find a way so that those who need to can continue to access our city centre by paying with cash.”

Currently out of over 1.5 million transactions in the last year 10 per cent of the parking income was from cash payments.

At the meeting it was decided that on street parking would move to cashless parking only. 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.

The council will share more information ahead of the changes coming into effect.

The meeting is available to view on demand at www.york.gov.uk/webcasts and the agenda for the meeting is available online at https://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=1061&MId=14343&Ver=4