Upgrade for pay and display machines?

Rother District Council runs 16 pay-and-display car parks, with 27 ticket machines available in them.

With the exception of six recently purchased machines, most of these are between eight and 17 years old.

The manufacturers recommended lifespan for the 
machines is just six to eight years.

Now the local authority feels it would be more cost-effective to replace the old machines rather than carry out repairs.

Following a review of Rother-run car parks, councillors are being presented with a number of different options.

One would be to continue replacing the machines out of the revenue budget – which would pay for just two new machines each year.

The second option would be to upgrade the 17 higher use machines at a cost of £54,000 with the remaining 10 coming from the revenue budget.

But the preferred option three would be to upgrade all machines at a cost of £75,000 and include card payments with pay on exit on all machines.

This last option could save Rother £8,500 over the lifespan of the machines.

If option three is given the go ahead, the car parks at Camber Central and Camber Western will be included in the machine upgrade programme, but will retain manned kiosks for the peak season due to the volume of visitors.

Council officers have recommended option three is given the go-ahead.

Rother’s cabinet committee will meet at Bexhill Town Hall to discuss the issue on Monday (March 7) at 11am.