The drivers being ripped off by the rise of ‘daylight robbery’ parking apps

Every week for the past 50 years, come rain or shine, Jennifer Wilcox has driven to Warwick to do her shopping.

The 76-year-old, who lives in Claverdon, five miles outside the town, says it caters perfectly for all her needs: her bank, chemist and optician are all within a short walk of each other.

But one week late last year, she found the payment machines in all the council car parks had disappeared.

The retired secretary discovered from the car park signs that she instead had to download an app on her mobile phone and enter her bank details and car reg number to pay to park — something she wasn’t comfortable doing.

Yet Warwick council — which started replacing all pay and display machines in district car parks with the RingGo app in November 2022 — offers no alternative payment method.

As a result, Jennifer hasn’t been back to Warwick since. Instead, she has been forced to drive a further five miles to Kenilworth to do her shopping.

‘Kenilworth is hardly convenient but it has a Sainsbury’s car park I can use for two hours for free,’ she says.

‘I have no choice. I don’t want to hand over my bank details online. I can’t tell the difference between what’s a scam and what’s genuine.’

Her anger and dismay at the rise of infuriating parking apps will strike a chord with millions across the country.

Pay-as-you-go parking machines are disappearing from British city streets at a rapid pace, with councils instructing drivers to pay via smartphone apps such as RingGo, PayByPhone and MiPermit.

It means drivers can no longer pay in cash and must have a smartphone with mobile data to be able to park.

Money Mail has received a deluge of letters from readers who say the switch to fiddly phone apps is blighting their lives.

The Mail on Sunday reported at the weekend that motorists are in some cases having to tap their mobile phones as many as 226 times to pay!

You must first download the app to your phone and figure out how to set up an account, then input your card details, and your vehicle details too. To park, you need to input the location’s code number and duration of stay.

Many of those struggling are older drivers who say they can’t navigate the apps and are giving up on trips out as a result.

Others are saying they aborted parking because they either didn’t have a strong signal or their phone had run out of battery when they arrived at their destination.

Those who have called helplines trying to pay for parking say they have been met with automated voice recordings rather than customer services staff. Some have waited hours to speak to a human or not got through at all.

No option if you haven’t got mobile data

Earlier this month, Kevin Coley and his wife were trying to find a parking space to visit their nephew in hospital at Leicester’s Royal Infirmary.

Unable to get into the hospital’s car park, they drove to one around the corner called Gateway Car Park. There, Kevin, 65, spotted a sign telling them to make the £2 parking payment online or over the phone.

The accountant does not have a smartphone and while his wife does, it doesn’t have mobile data enabled. That meant they were unable to download the app.

Paying via a phone call was their only option. But the line repeatedly cut out. When they got through, their payment was unsuccessful. In frustration, they gave up.

Kevin says: ‘My wife went through this process three times in total. It was sunny and difficult to see the phone screen. At this point we decided to park elsewhere.’ The whole process took 25 minutes and at no point did either Kevin or his wife leave their car.

Yet just over a week ago, Kevin received a £60 penalty notice from parking company Euro Car Parks — which operates the Gateway Car Park — for the time the car was stationary.

‘It’s disgusting and I will be appealing,’ Kevin says.

Driving away those without a smart phone

Charles Wicks has been visiting the Tern Cafe at Frensham Little Pond near Farnham in Surrey since 1946.

But he fears a recent trip in March to the medieval bishops’ fishpond, part of the National Trust, will prove his last.

The 86-year-old pensioner, who owns a pay-as-you-go phone, says it was impossible for him to download the app he now needs to pay for parking at the cafe.

He says: ‘I drove away and did not stay for coffees and cakes, so the cafe has lost my custom in the future. I’ve been going there since 1946 when I first helped the then owner, Mr Atherton, with his boats. We also used to fish and swim across the pond.’

Another reader, Tim Baldwin, wrote to Money Mail saying he is no longer meeting friends in Bath after being driven out by the city’s adoption of parking apps.

He and his pals — who are over 60 — used to enjoy a long lunch in Bath followed by a nice afternoon in the city, and occasionally an evening trip to the theatre.

But they now struggle to find somewhere to park where they can pay with cash or card.

None of them uses a smart phone, so they’ve given up on Bath and go to country pubs with reserved parking instead.

‘The council is waging a war on cars and is discriminating against those without smart phones,’ Tim says. ‘There are so many reasons why someone might not own one — so please don’t treat us as second-class citizens and exclude us because of it.

‘We’ve spent a lot of money in shops and businesses over the years in Bath, so I feel sorry that the council’s lack of empathy towards its older visitors is affecting footfall in this way.’

He adds: ‘Councils should be falling over themselves to ensure that their parking is accessible to all people rather than putting barriers up.’

Jackie Tench, 76, is another who suddenly discovered the car park she uses in her local town, Cirencester, in Gloucestershire, had gone fully digital, leaving her unable to pay.

Jackie, who lives in the town and is disabled, doesn’t have a mobile phone. She says she cannot drive further afield as her disability means she can’t travel long distances.

She says: ‘I find it awful in today’s world that I can’t take part in many things because I don’t have a smartphone. It should be a legal requirement that alternative ways of paying are available.’

Hefty £250 fine For making a simple mistake

Some motorists say they are being charged hefty penalties for genuine mistakes when they thought they had successfully paid for parking.

However, parking firms are under no obligation to waive fines and can levy hefty penalties for late payment.

Michelle O’Malley, from Doncaster, says she has spent the past eight months disputing a parking fine. But she was forced to back down and hand over £250 when she was taken to court. 

The former hairdresser, 56, says she thought she had paid £5 to park her car for two hours last July when she and her husband Richard stopped in Filey, near Scarborough, for a stroll along the beach.

‘I downloaded the app and filled it all in, including my car registration and credit card details. It wasn’t straightforward but we did it — or at least we thought we did,’ she says. 

Two weeks later, she received a £40 fine for failing to pay. The couple refused to pay it, as they believed it was unfair.

But the parking company issued a county court judgment and hiked the penalty to £250.

‘We are in our 50s and we generally know what we are doing, but this was complicated,’ she says.

‘It’s daylight robbery and it’s disgusting that these companies get away with it.’

Consumer rights expert Scott Dixon says: ‘People cannot speak to anyone if they are having issues as contact details for parking firms are often not readily available.

‘Parking tickets are being issued automatically by cameras that do not take any mitigating factors into account.

‘Private parking ticket operators use intimidating legalese jargon to force motorists to pay up. The threat of a fine escalating intimidates people of all ages.’

Cash is out and apps are in say councils

A growing number of councils are ripping out pay-as-you-go machines in favour of cashless smart phone apps.

Brighton and Hove city council will get rid of all its pay and display machines by May 31. A spokesman says this measure will save £220,000 this tax year, as the council will no longer have to maintain, repair and replace machines or collect cash.

For those without a credit or debit card, they can still pay by cash for on-street parking at certain vendors around the city.

However, Money Mail readers say staff at the designated shops are not always aware of this.

The London borough of Bromley removed all its machines by early April. Harrow had all its machines removed by January and Enfield plan to have them all removed this month. Other boroughs which have removed some machines are Richmond, Merton and Barking and Dagenham.

Edmund King, president at the AA, the leading motoring group, says the shift indicates that councils and parking operators think drivers serve them and not the other way around.

‘These payment apps differ wherever you go and add more to the often extortionate cost of parking,’ he says. ‘Older motorists are often bamboozled by rules and machines that seem designed to catch them out.’

Mr King adds that research shows drivers just want simple ways to pay for parking: cash, card or contactless.

‘If the cost of parking and the constant threat of being fined for the slightest mistake wasn’t bad enough, obstacles thrown in the way of simple payment for tickets ramps up the stress,’ he says.

Peter O’Driscoll, of parking app RingGo, says: ‘We recognise that some motorists still prefer not to use an app, which is why we also offer SMS and phoneline payment options.

‘We also understand that having multiple parking apps isn’t the perfect solution, which is why we’re working with the Department for Transport as well as local operators to create an ‘Open-Market for parking’, where drivers would be able to choose to pay via a payment machine or the app they want to use.’

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk