Parking by app 'digitally excludes older drivers'

Five car parks in Worcester are to go cashless from July following problems last year at 14 sites.

Worcester council says this is "in response to a decline in cash payments and an increase in app usage".

But Age UK has warned that the 2.4 million people aged 65 and over in the UK, who still rely on cash, risk being marginalised by such moves.

Councils using the third party apps say it saves money on machine maintenance and is more secure and convenient.

In Worcester the car parks affected are Clare Street, Tallow Hill, Tybridge Street, Commandery Road and The Moors.

However Jane Mowat, a driver at Tallow Hill, said: " I wouldn't even know how to download the app, so I would probably just go home."

And Age UK states "39% of over 65s don't feel confident using a smartphone" and struggle to deal with problems such as poor network connectivity.

There are an estimated 30 parking apps in use in the UK. To pay, a user must find the right app to download, set up a payment account and find the right location for the car park.

Another driver, Ian James, said: "I've just used the app - [but an] error message occurred. We've gone through this three times so I'm forced to go and find another car park.

"Technology, when it works it's great, but when it doesn't, there's no way you can work around it."

In Herefordshire and Worcester, Age UK says "we're hearing from more and more people who are finding that their usual car parks are becoming app-only and that's actually putting them off going out because they know they haven't got the skills to deal with that".

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As a result, high-street retailers fear the problem is reducing the number of people going shopping.

Dee Archer, owner of Snips hair salon in Stratford-upon-Avon, said: "Not everybody has a phone that they can put the app on and my older clients are struggling with this. It is going to drive people out of the town centre.

"I've owned my business for 30 years and it's becoming harder and harder in Stratford to make a living".

Warwickshire council say "there are no plans to remove the option for cash payments at on-street parking sites. We want parking to remain stress free for everyone".

In Birmingham however, journalist Peter Paphides' elderly father died weeks after struggling to pay for parking in April 2022 left him anxious about being fined.

Mr Paphides was left to deal with the parking fine, a process which took days to resolve as PaybyPhone required a death certificate, which he was still waiting for himself.

He says digital exclusion "has the effect of making old people, who already have a tendency to feel invisible, feel like the world is not really for them anymore".

It comes in the wake of the continuing closure of bank branches causing similar problems and a recent Bank of England warning that cash is becoming "less usable" as more and more shops focus on only digital payment methods.

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