COUNCIL chiefs have agreed to launch a consultation on the removal of cash payments in York’s car parks.

City of York Council says the removal of cash machines could save £45,000 a year.

But one campaigner raised fears about pedestrians and people in coercive relationships, saying they could be adversely affected by the move.

A report to the council said the use of cash to pay for parking has been declining in recent years - in 2020/21, cash made up 25 per cent of payments, but this figure had dwindled to just 12 per cent for 2022/23.

The report said: “Another reason to consider cashless payments is that over the last few years, we have seen a number of attacks, both planned and taken by chance, on parking ticket machines to steal the cash in them.

“Recently damage and theft of a pay and display machine at Scarborough Hospital was recorded.

“Therefore, a cashless policy would eliminate any risks of thefts or damage associated with the stealing of cash.”

The council says it would save £45,000 a year for cash collection and reconciliation of parking machines if it went cashless, as well as extra savings on the maintenance of old machines.

But Flick Williams, who often campaigns on disability issues in York, noted other issues not covered in the report.

“Those in coercive relationships, most usually women, will often use cash to avoid surveillance of their location from their bank card use from their abusive partners,” she said.

Ms Williams added: “This is what this is really about; switching from pay and display to pay on exit.

“If so, restoring barriers to car parks also opens up a whole new can of worms regarding the accessibility of pedestrian movement.”

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The council states that if the cashless policy is adopted, then there will be significant cost savings from:

  • removal of the cash collection service
  • elimination of theft of cash from machines and damage to machines
  • reduction in maintenance and coin jams in machines
  • removal of around 60 per cent of ticket machines, resulting in further savings in maintenance and use of these machines
  • a reduction /elimination of costs to download and upload data from machines.

However, it adds if the policy is not agreed, the issue of the budget decision in 2021 - to explore the removal of cashless payments across the council's entire estate - will need to be picked up.