Drivers in Sandwell will soon be able to pay to park in council car parks using a cashless parking app.

The council is working with mobile parking provider, PayByPhone, to launch its services in the council’s 50 car parks and 55 on-street bays from Monday 2nd September 2019. 

The PayByPhone app allows people to pay for their parking using their mobile devices. Users can opt to receive text message reminders when their parking session is about to expire and the app’s " Extend-From-Anywhere" feature can be used to extend a parking session without returning to the vehicle, up to the maximum stay for each location. 
 
The council’s car parks and parking bays will still have the traditional parking ticket machines that accept coins and the addition of PayByPhone’s cashless parking will not affect anyone who already pays for a monthly or annual parking permit. Sandwell Council’s Cabinet Member for Sustainable Transport, Councillor Jackie Taylor, said:

"This is Sandwell investing in the her and now - investing in the future. We are really pleased to be working with PayByPhone and to be able to offer people this cashless alternative for paying to park in our car parks and on-street bays.

"Lots of people prefer to pay for parking online. It’s convenient, you don’t need the right change to pay for your ticket or worry about running back to your car to extend your parking session. 

"It’s a really hassle-free way of paying to park and I’d ask anyone who uses our car parks regularly to download the app now ahead of the launch next month."

In addition to the cashless payment and Extend-From-Anywhere benefits, PayByPhone users will be able to also use the recently-launched Maps and the Nearby Parking features. The Maps feature allows drivers to locate parking before they leave for their destination and pin their vehicle location onto the map once they have parked. The Nearby Parking feature instantly provides drivers with the closest parking location number once parked. Adam Dolphin, Sales Director for PayByPhone UK, added:

"We are delighted to launch PayByPhone in Sandwell. Mobile parking payments have many advantages to drivers and to the local authority.

"Not only does it make the parking experience more hassle-free, it also greatly reduces vandalism and the cost of maintaining the pay-and-display machines."
 
The PayByPhone app will be available to use for parking in Sandwell Council car parks from Monday 2nd September and can be downloaded any time from the App Store, Google Play Store, or by visiting the PayByPhone website.