New £1 coin concerns car parks

Monday, March 24, 2014 - 16:50
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UNWELCOME: New £1 coin bad news for car parking?

Around £50million will have to be spent on adapting 100,000 parking machines to accommodate the forthcoming 12-sided £1 coin, it has been claimed.

Highlighting concern over the Chancellor’s plans, revealed in last week’s Budget, the British Parking Association (BPA) insist the move would cause inconvenience to motorists and operators.

However, despite this, the BPA claim they have long been concerned about the high level of counterfeit coins in circulation, which costs councils and other providers £40million every year.

Kelvin Reynolds, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at the BPA, said:  “We look forward to working closely with the Royal Mint during the public consultation on the introduction of this new coin with its improved security features.

“Eliminating counterfeit coins is in the best interests of motorists as well as parking operators as everyone loses.”

Kelvin Reynolds, BPA

“Eliminating counterfeit coins is in the best interests of motorists as well as parking operators as everyone loses.

“It may be that we see an increase in cashless payment options as a result.

“Many operators already offer flexible payment methods including credit cards with a small number of motorists using mobile phone apps.

“If older machines are upgraded to include all the current payment methods the costs could be much greater than £50million.”

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