Drivers face higher charges when using cash to pay for parking in 'discriminatory' change
Drivers paying with cash may be forced to pay extra
PA
Drivers who pay to park their cars with cash could be charged higher fees than those using a mobile app.
In response to the new plans, the Government and motoring organisations have urged Sutton Council to ditch the plans.
The local authority unveiled the price changes in June which saw increased charges for motorists using machines to pay for their parking.
However, the changes were frozen for those who use an app or automated telephone line, according to PA.
Drivers using parking apps or ringing a phone line will save money
PA
The London borough council said the price changes were introduced to deal with the rising cost of maintaining the pay-and-display machines.
Anyone looking to pay with a machine in a council-owned car park will be required to pay £3 for an hour.
Any driver who prefers to pay using the RingGo parking app or phone service will pay just £2.
A number of councils have introduced more expensive parking fees in recent months to deal with the running of pay-and-display machines.
Mobile operators are beginning to phase out the 3G network, which many older machines rely on to process card payments.
These have either been replaced with more modern parking machines, parking apps or a dedicated phone line.
A spokesperson for the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, said: “This practice unfairly penalises those who choose to pay at parking machines, and we ask that Sutton Council reconsiders their policy.
“Councils have a duty to ensure that they do not discriminate in their decision making against older people or those with vulnerabilities.”
Many have highlighted how these changes could disproportionately affect elderly motorists, who may not be as familiar with parking apps compared to younger drivers.
Caroline Abrahams, a director at Age UK, commented on the move to mobile payments for parking, saying that it penalises “hundreds of thousands of older people” who are not online.
She added: “We know that councils are under huge financial pressure but we hope this one will reconsider its approach, which has the unfortunate effect of clobbering some older motorists more than everyone else.”
Rod Dennis, RAC spokesperson, said the changes were “nothing short of discriminatory”, with an RAC study showing that almost one in five drivers have already their local authority scrapping parking machines or consulting to do so.
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Experts are warning that it could lead to elderly drivers being penalised
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He continued, saying: “It can’t be right that those who find themselves in this situation, or who struggle with technology in the first place, end up having to pay more just to park their cars.”