Parking the old-school way—dropping coins into a machine—is becoming a thing of the past. Councils across the UK are phasing out on-street parking meters in favour of smartphone apps like RingGo, even though plenty of drivers say the apps are unreliable and overpriced.
The latest place affected is Guildford, where two-thirds of town centre parking machines were switched off this month. Most now have signs taped to them, telling drivers they need to pay using RingGo instead.
Surrey County Council says it made the switch because the machines are outdated and collecting cash now costs more than it brings in. But that doesn’t make it any less frustrating for drivers.
One woman told Autocar she couldn’t get the app to connect. “My phone can’t establish a connection [to the RingGo app],” she said. “I’m already late for an appointment and don’t have time to waste trying to buy a ticket. I expect I shall be fined.”
An older couple nearby weren’t impressed either. “We don’t like downloading and using apps and would much rather use coins or contactless payment,” they said. “At least we have a smartphone. Many of our friends don’t. We will have to find another parking space.”
The council responded by saying these were “isolated” issues and that people who still want to use cash can park elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Brighton and Hove is going the opposite way. After testing whether to bring back 12 contactless parking machines, the council found drivers actually preferred them to the app-based system.
Joyce Collins, 90, told BBC Radio Sussex: “I don’t know anything about apps. I don’t take my car into the city especially because I don’t know about the parking.”
According to the AA, a lot of its members feel the same. “They prefer to pay using chip and pin and get angry with parking apps that won’t connect or carry extra charges. Councils make it difficult to pay then make it more expensive to pay. It’s a real mess.” said a spokesperson.
Apps like RingGo, JustPark, and PayByPhone are big business. In 2023 alone, RingGo made £30 million in parking fees, most of which comes from the charges they apply to local councils.
To try and make things simpler, the government is trialling the National Parking Platform, which brings together five apps into one system. It’s already handling nearly 500,000 parking sessions a month across 473 UK towns and cities.
As for complaints about the current system? The Department for Transport says it’s working on it, but budget challenges mean some big decisions had to be made.
