Fears cashless parking 'could harm town centres'

Removing the option to pay by cash in some of Cornwall's car parks could harm town centre trade, opponents have claimed.

Cornwall Council said people would only be able to use contactless payments or an app to pay in the majority of its 138 fee-charging car parks from 1 August.

The Conservative group on the unitary authority warned making it harder for people to use the sites could deter them from going into towns, impacting businesses.

However, the Liberal Democrat-Independent administration which runs the council insisted the move would save money and each town would still have one car park that would continue to accept cash.

The council said money spent to collect, transport and process cash from machines at its car parks could be invested in maintaining highways instead.

However, Conservative group leader Connor Donnithorne argued: "There is absolutely no need to do this. The revenue saving is minuscule when you look at a £1.2bn budget at Cornwall Council.

"That money can be found from efficiencies elsewhere which won't make it more difficult for people to go in and support local businesses and high streets across Cornwall.

"It is undeniable that the majority of people use card and contactless to park their vehicles, but there's a significant chunk of people who can't or won't use it.

"There are lots of people who are digitally excluded in Cornwall. There are a lot of people who just want to use cash.

"Local councils shouldn't be making life unnecessarily more difficult for people."

About 47 car parks would continue to accept cash, and the cabinet member for transport on the council, Dan Rogerson, said the move was a response to people's changing habits.

He said: "We're spending £100,000 collecting cash from machines in car parks where now we're down to about 10% of people using cash.

"So, it's a lot of money being spent that could be spent to maintain the car parks and and the highways."

He said each town would still have a car park which accepted cash and rejected claims the changes would penalise older people.

"A lot will use cards for everything to pay for stuff. They'll pay for their shopping with them, for their fuel, so paying for parking is no different," he said.

He insisted the changes would not lead to a drop in town centre trade - but they would keep the impact under review.

"Obviously, if that does prove to be a problem at a particular location, we can turn the cash function back on.

"But this is being driven by the customers, by the people who are using the car parks themselves, who are moving away from cash," he added.

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