In summer 2023 we consulted on whether to move to cashless payment ticket machines only for council owned car parks and on-street parking meters.
The Executive Member for Economy and Place made the decision to progress with the removal of cash payments from all on street and car parking locations except for Bootham Row and Castle car park.
Find out more about the decision session for the Cashless Parking Review.
Typical parking machines across the city
In recent years there has been a reduction of payments made using cash to pay for parking both locally and nationally. In York it was found that less than 14% pay using cash across all on-street parking bays and car parks, and this is forecast to reduce further.
These changes have led councils, including City of York Council, to consider removing the option of paying for parking using cash payments.
We considered, through this consultation, the effects caused by this change and whether anything could be done to help mitigate those effects.
Councils are increasingly reviewing changing their parking payment options with some considering moving to cashless payment methods only.
There are different ways you can pay for parking without using cash, other cashless payment options include:
- debit or credit cards
- PayByPhone
- season ticket
- residential permits
Please note that any Blue Badge holder can park for free in any disabled or standard parking bays and resident parking zones, as long as their Blue Badge is displayed.
View the Access in York map.
The benefits and disadvantages of cashless parking
The benefits include:
- savings on costs of collecting cash from the machines - about £90,000 a year in York
- reduced maintenance costs - non-cash machines cost less to maintain
- reductions in thefts and damage associated with machines that collect and process cash
We have seen a steady decline in cash payments via our on-street parking machines. Approximately 60% of machines only just cover the costs of maintenance, cash collection and reconciliation.
There may be disadvantages to those vehicle users who:
- have no other choice but to pay by cash
- do not currently have access to contactless methods
- do not have a smart device
- do not have a bank card
- find ticket machines are not visually or physically accessible
- need to avoid leaving a digital trail
The consultation aimed to be as inclusive as possible to seek a collective view on this between those who support or do not support this but we especially wanted to hear the views of those who would be affected.