Welwyn Garden City, 29 May 2012: Bury and Walsall have become the latest councils to choose PayByPhone, rolling out the cashless parking service to over 40 local car parks and more than 400 on-street parking locations across the two towns. Bury and Walsall join a growing list of local authorities now offering motorists the convenience of the PayByPhone service.
PayByPhone has significantly increased its coverage in the South of England, Scotland and Wales, having recently signed up 11 new local authorities. Local authorities in the Midlands, North and North West have been keen to catch up and offer cashless parking since Manchester City Council adopted it in November 2011 and, most recently, Kirklees Council last month. Bury Council and Walsall Council will soon be followed by Carlisle and Wigan Councils, both of which are due to launch with PayByPhone before the end of the month.
Robin Bevan, Commercial CEO from PayByPhone, says: “We have enjoyed great success with private parking operators such as Euro Car Parks, Britannia and Moto Services in these areas, so it’s really pleasing to see local authority parking operators now realising the benefits of PayByPhone parking services too.”
The cashless parking service was launched in Bury on 2 May, quickly followed by Walsall on 21 May. Motorists in these areas can join the four million registered PayByPhone users who can choose from a range of easy-to-use phone payment options when paying to park, including smartphone apps, mobile web and text message payments.
Bury Councillor Tony Isherwood, executive member for environment and economy, said: "This scheme is being introduced to make it as convenient as possible for drivers to park in Bury."
Enforcement of the service in Bury and Walsall is easily managed through PayByPhone’s flexible enforcement interface. Each enforcement team has been provided with Blackberry devices that have been loaded with the PayByPhone web-based interface and, using these devices, the enforcement officers are able to see details of the vehicles currently parked, the parking duration and expiry time and the amount paid by the motorist.
“The BlackBerry devices are really easy for the enforcement team to use and we also have access to a suite of detailed reports showing all the of the PaybyPhone payments that have been made,” said Glynnis Jeavons, Parking Services Manager at Walsall Council.
Part of the PayPoint group of companies, PayByPhone is the UK’s leading phone parking specialist, offering the widest and most innovative range of phone parking payments, including NFC parking, QR codes, smartphone apps and cash payments at local shops within the PayPoint network. It works with local authority and parking operators from all over the UK and has more than 4 million registered users of the service worldwide.
ENDS….
Contacts:
Katie Buckett / Karla Winch
Brands2Life
020 7592 1200
Paypoint2@brands2life.com
About PayByPhone
PayByPhone is a leading international provider of services to parking authorities allowing consumers to use their mobile phones to pay for their parking by credit or debit card. It has contracts in the UK, France, Canada and the USA. PayByPhone is part of the PayPoint Group of companies
About PayPoint
PayPoint is a leading international provider of convenient payments and value added services to major consumer service organisations in the utility, housing, water, telecoms, media, financial services, transport, retail, e-commerce, gaming and public sectors.
PayPoint delivers payments and services through a uniquely strong combination of local shops, internet and mobile distribution channels and handles over £12 billion from over 650 million transactions annually for more than 6,000 clients and merchants.