New payment app will save motorists money

by Lisa Reeves

Friday 18^th September 2020

Fri 18^th Sep 2020

Motorists using a mobile phone to pay for parking at council car parks in Cheshire East will see a reduction in their charges.

From Thursday 1st October, the RingGo app will be replaced by PayByPhone as the new method of payment by phone. Residents and visitors parking in Cheshire East Council's car parks will benefit from a reduction from 20p to 7p per transaction, while it will also now be free for motorists to request confirmation of their booking and notification of when their parking period is due to expire.

In the last 12 months, half a million transactions have been made using RingGo, so it is anticipated that the new contract with PayByPhone will make huge savings for motorists across the borough.

Councillor Laura Crane, Cheshire East Council cabinet member for highways and waste, said: "I am very happy to see this change go live. We are working hard to ensure that our services provide value for money to our residents and this, whilst not making a saving for the council, is keeping more money in the pockets of local motorists.

"As we all fight hard to beat this virus, many are choosing to use non-contact methods such as this to pay for their car parking needs and I hope that this cost saving will enable more people to make the switch if they are able to, reducing a transmission risk within our community. This also includes our staff and contractors, who maintain and empty the cash from our payment meters, which will continue as normal."

RingGo will remain in use until midnight on Wednesday 30 September but we would encourage people to download 'paybyphone' on their mobile device as this will be the new means of paying for parking by phone from 1 October.

Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Fred Rayers

Saturday 19^th September 2020 at 5:23 pm

"Council charges 10% premium for anyone paying by phone" would be a better headline.

Given the council would otherwise have to empty the cash machines (if it actually works at all) one would have thought absorbing the cost of using a third party company would be a more equitable solution to local tax payers.

Ade Whitaker

Sunday 20^th September 2020 at 11:35 am

I agree with @Fred - I was a bit shocked to find out you have to pay extra for paying via the app. You might even have expected to have got a discount for making life easier for the council.

Alan Brough

Wednesday 23^rd September 2020 at 11:14 am

I'm surprised (and disappointed) that the story was allowed to run like this. Its clearly a distortion of the fact that paying by phone app costs more than by coin.

Charlie Cook

Thursday 24^th September 2020 at 3:21 pm

Aha, I totally misunderstood this. I thought it meant parking was reduced from 20p to 7p. That is, I assumed it meant ‘for every 20p unit’. How misleading.

Laurie Atterbury

Thursday 24^th September 2020 at 9:25 pm

So you have to "pay so you can pay" and they dress it up as a saving? Cheshire East, please pull the other one.

David Cain

Friday 25^th September 2020 at 9:53 am

I don’t understand the above comments. The headline says use app to save money. I read it that there are 20p savings for the longest period down to 7p savings for the shortest (70p) so that would be 10%. Am I missing something?

Monday 28^th September 2020 at 9:58 am

David, as i stated, differently worded, that was how I read it as well, but other comments suggest the saving is on a fee to use the app, not on the actual parking. As they are not taking money at present, this appears to be an unavoidable charge. Perhaps someone could give us the definitive answer?...

Monday 28^th September 2020 at 11:34 am