'Waste of money' as Cornwall Council spends thousands replacing more car park payment machines

Just a few weeks after it was revealed that Cornwall Council spent £18,000 replacing payment machines in three of its car parks after just five years of use, the local authority has revealed it is going to be spending thousands more making the same changes at six more car parks. Taxpayers are not happy with the decision.

The council replaced pay-on-exit systems with pay and display machines in three Truro city centre car parks - Garras Wharf, Moorfield and Old Bridge Street - last year. CornwallLive's Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request earlier this month revealed £18,309.96 was spent on installing the new machines, although the council did not say how much the original charging systems cost or how much it cost to remove them, so the figure would be a lot more.

Now the council has announced that between now and April, it will be removing the pay-on-exit barrier system from six more of its car parks, returning them to the traditional pay and display system used in most of its other car parks.

The affected car parks are:

• Millpool, Looe
• St Georges Road, Newquay
• The Manor, Newquay
• Harbour, Penzance
• Trenwith, St Ives
• Island, St Ives

A spokesperson said: "Once the switchover dates are confirmed, we’ll put up signs at the car park entrances and payment terminals to notify you in advance. If you don’t regularly park in these car parks, please check the signs before leaving your vehicle to ensure you pay correctly."

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In the three hours since the council posted the news on Facebook today (Wednesday, January 29), more than 100 comments had been made with only four people in favour of the move.

Karen Pearn said: "What a waste of money on The Millpool car park in Looe. Took forever to install and then implement the machines, gates, etc and now reversing - how stupid! People can relax more if they know they don’t have to rush back to their cars and spend more in town. Just your way to catch more people out and fine them!"

Craig Carkeek added: "Why? Seems like a load of money spent to install it and now spending a load more to put it back the way it was."

"More of our money wasted, removing the barriers, which were only installed recently," wrote Julie Wheeler.

Connor Rankin said: "What an absolute joke! The pay on barrier is far better. Park as long as you want and pay when you return. Typical. You spend tens of thousands on this, only to remove it. Did you consult taxpayers? Did you consult those that use the car parks? Absolutely not!"

"Such a waste of money. It took months for them to install the barriers in St Ives," added Ailsa Dudley, while Rachel Balls commented: "How much more of our money is this council going to waste? I’m not expressing an opinion either way as to which system is best, but am exasperated at another U-turn by the council that will cost us precious money that isn’t available to be 'wasted'."

Chris Sherin wrote: "It would be good of Cornwall Council if they told us of the reason behind their actions. It does seem to be a costly backward step."

We did ask the council why. A spokesperson told us: "This decision is for several reasons: feedback from drivers – barrier-controlled car parks are not accessible for everyone; safety - there have been many instances of tailgating, where drivers seeking to avoid paying for their parking drove close to other vehicles as they exited the car park, often resulting in collisions, and reliability - the barriers were frequently susceptible to technical and hardware failure, as well as vandalism.

"Technology has developed since the pay on exit system was first introduced, with JustPark allowing drivers to extend their parking sessions remotely. Regular car park users are also able to benefit from discounts through JustPark multi-use sessions and resident season tickets. "