An Essex local authority that has introduced new technology to make it easier for motorists to pay for their parking wants to encourage more use of the ‘wave-and-pay’ option in car parks.
Rochford District Council has worked with Metric Parking to fit contactless readers in 28 new Metric pay and display parking machines, including 26 Auras and two Aura Elites in car parks across the district.
This now enables Rochford residents and visitors to pay by wave-and-pay as well as by debit and credit cards.
The Council’s Portfolio Holder for Planning and Transportation, Councillor Keith Hudson, said the idea of introducing cutting edge wave-and-pay was to get people to use more cashless payments for parking.
He said: "Wave-and-pay is a quick and secure option to pay for parking. You no longer have to ensure a ready supply of coins.
"By offering wave-and-pay we are giving motorists as many options as possible and we would like to thank Metric who has been extremely helpful and professional throughout the roll-out process of these new machines.
"In addition, the Metric machines across the district accept debit and credit cards and also allow payment by mobile phone."