Cashless parking in York leaves some feeling shut out of the city
The council's removing several on-street machines over the next few weeks to save money and avoid the risk of thefts
Some people in York say they'll feel shut out of the City as more car parking pay and display machines stop taking cash.
City of York Council is removing several on-street machines over the next few weeks to save money and avoid the risk of thefts.
It says only 10% of people still pay with coins - but they will still be accepted at Bootham Row and Castle Car park.
But some residents and visitors in York tells us they're worried about being scammed.
Going cashless
City of York Council says, back in February it was agreed at a decision session that the majority of the council’s car parking would go cashless, as it looked to save money by removing the costs of maintaining machines and also avoiding the risk of thefts.
This followed a cashless parking consultation held with residents in the summer of 2023, which proposed removing all cash payment machines in council car parks.
However, after feedback from the consultation it was agreed that cash payments would still be accepted in 2 council car parks, Bootham Row and Castle Car Park.
Councillor Kate Ravilious, Executive Member for Transport said:
Ahead of the changes being made as we move to cashless on-street parking we wanted to update residents.
“While 90% of payments are made by card, we are aware that some still prefer to pay cash so want to support them through this change. After listening to feedback we are keeping machines for people to pay by cash in at Bootham Row and Castle Car Park.”
Currently out of over 1.5 million transactions in the last year 10% of the parking income was from cash payments. On-street parking accounts for 6% of parking income in the city and there would have been a need to upgrade over 50 parking machines at significant cost.
In the coming weeks on-street car parking machines will be removed. Information stickers will be added to machines to give residents early warning. There will not be any changes to car park pay and display machines until 2025.
See information on on-street parking locations in York, and how to pay for car parking by phone.
Blue badge holders can continue to park free as per usual.