Time runs out for coin-operated meters

15 April 2009

Westminster City Council is set to remove the last of its coin-operated parking meters from the streets of central London.

The final five machines will disappear from Warwick Square on 11 May – 51 years and a day after their first introduction in the borough.

The move follows the local authority’s introduction of cashless parking in the capital two years ago (Surveyor, 11 November 2006).

Cllr Danny Chalkley, the council’s cabinet member for environment and transport, said: ‘While the parking meter has a long history in Westminster stretching back more than 50 years, it’s now time to look to the future and call time on its use.’

The council’s pay-by-phone parking system now handles 140,000 transactions per week. Before the scheme’s introduction the council was losing up to £120,000 per week through thefts from the meters.

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