No change, no problem if you are looking to pay for parking in central Guildford.
Motorists can now use the RingGo parking app to access the pay by phone parking service for Guildford’s on-street and car park parking.
And from Wednesday, December 1, “convenience fees” for using the RingGo system will be reduced from 19p to 10p.
Paying with cash will still be an option but cashless payments will require a mobile phone.
Lead councillor for Environment, James Steel (Lib Dem, Westborough) said: “We are really pleased that we can make paying for parking easier and cheaper in our town centre.
“By using RingGo you won’t need to run around looking for change, find pay and display machines or worry about losing your parking ticket. You’ll be able to extend your stay using your mobile phone wherever you are, no dashing back to the car, and have the option of setting up free alerts to let you know when your parking period is about to end.
“The app is easy and simple to use. All you need to do is log your car and bank details and type in the car park name or code that you’ve parked in and choose the length of your visit.”
Peter O’Driscoll, managing director for RingGo says: “Last year usage of RingGo increased tremendously, as people sought an alternative to touching shared buttons on machines and we very much expect to see patterns repeat themselves this year. Guildford’s action today, in continuing to reduce the differential between cash and cashless payments, will only help this process further.
“We have some great value parking options to help you shop local this Christmas including over 1,000 short-stay spaces charged at hourly rates. If you are staying in town for longer, consider parking in one of our shopper car parks where it costs £3 to stay for up to three hours or £6 for six hours. You can also use the park and ride bus services, which are cheaper to use for all but shorter visits and keep more cars off the busy town centre streets.
“If you’re visiting us in the evening to enjoy one of our great venues you can even park for free. Guildford Park and Shalford Park car parks are both free after 6pm. Or if you want to park closer to the town centre, Farnham Road car park is 10p per hour after 5pm and our town-centre car parks and many of our on-street spaces are £1 after 6pm.”
Amanda Masters, CEO at Experience Guildford: “With many people having a stronger preference for cashless payments since COVID, having RingGo available should make on-street parking more convenient for local residents and visitors to the town.
“It’s great to have one less thing to worry about if you’re planning a quick trip to the shops and need to park as close to your destination as possible…perfect for picking up those hard to carry presents!”
A council spokesperson said: “We’ve recently changed our on-street parking control hours and pay and display parking. This is to increase the availability of spaces for our residents, make some of the busiest roads in the borough safer and less congested, and protect access routes for emergency service.
“On-street charging has been extended to Monday to Sunday from 8.30am to 9pm. We are prioritising permit holders by increasing hours of Controlled Parking Zones A, B and D from 8.30am to 9pm each day.”
This website is published by The Guildford Dragon NEWS
Contact: Martin Giles mgilesdragon@gmail.com
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Jim Allen
November 25, 2021 at 7:33 pm
What if you don’t have a smartphone?. Or if, like me, you don’t want to have your bank details on your smartphone. The City of Lincoln has this system. I drove in, no way to pay for parking other than the broken internet system, there was no signal. So I left and took my custom elsewhere.
I don’t see this as a benefit.
J A Hulse
November 26, 2021 at 9:16 am
What about us oldies? We do not have phones with apps.
James Steel
November 26, 2021 at 9:00 pm
Purchasing with coins will still be available.
James Steel is the lead councillor for Environment at GBC
Editor’s response: Thank you, article amended.
Janet Moorhouse
November 26, 2021 at 11:48 am
I do not have a smartphone either. Since Covid the GBC car park by the Town Bridge is under-used. Yet it is only available to the public on Saturdays and Sundays. It is the most convenient car park for the High Street. I live in Guildford but shop in Godalming where parking for the less able is easier.
Editor’s comment: GBC councillors have stated that coin payments will still be possible.
Valerie Thompson
November 26, 2021 at 2:55 pm
I have never managed yet to pay for any parking by phone. Why not allow drivers to pay by credit card if the council wants to do away with cash?
So even fewer people will bother to come shopping in Guildford, which at times seems like a ghost town already.
Editor’s comment: It has now been made clear that cash payments, with coins at least, will still be possible.
Keith Reeves
November 26, 2021 at 4:15 pm
Reading the article tells us that the change concerning payment by Ringgo is that in future a smaller additional fee will be incurred compared to the situation now.
It doesn’t say that you have to use a smartphone. It doesn’t say that payment machines are being withdrawn. It doesn’t say that the usual RingGo options of phoning or texting won’t be available.
So, you don’t need a phone with an app.
A H Jones
November 26, 2021 at 9:53 pm
I have the Ringo App and it does not always work. I have had conversations with Ringo who could not explain why not. I have had to use cash.
I have had the app for some years and the problem in Guildford is recent. It works fine in Dorking and SWT station car parks, but both of these also have alternative payment methods.
My wife will not be coming to Guildford again if this article is true. Park and Ride is not the answer to all needs.
Editor’s response: The lead councillor has written to say cash payments, at least with coins, will still be an option.
Maddy Redpath
November 27, 2021 at 8:25 am
The option to pay with change will still be available. My concern from these comments and some I’ve seen on social media is that the public think RingGo is going to be the only option.
RingGo is an extra method of payment, in addition to the ones we currently have.
Maddy Redpath is the R4GV borough councillor for Holy Trinity
Stuart Taylor
November 28, 2021 at 11:23 pm
Why does it cost more to use the app at all? Surely the council can save the costs in collecting the coins and banking charges to process cash payments. How about dropping the 10p altogether?
Adam Aaronson
November 30, 2021 at 10:50 am
The addition of RingGo is an excellent improvement, because it means motorists can still pay to park when the ticket machines are out of order. Another advantage is that they will have an exact time record of your parking, which is useful where the parking machine clocks are out of sync.
The clock on the machine outside the Guildford Institute in Ward Street is a couple of minutes slow and has been for a number of years. This means that you could get a ticket if you time your parking by GMT rather than WST (Ward Street Time).
I wonder how many other parking ticket machines are out of time?
Mike Truman
December 2, 2021 at 9:22 am
I find RingGo convenient, but it doesn’t interact well with the council Green Scheme for electric vehicles. Having paid for an hour by RingGo, I was given a ticket despite being within the further three hours free parking that the scheme allows. I successfully appealed but was told that paying by cash was a requirement of the scheme, so that the attendant can see your arrival time from the paper ticket. Apparently, once RingGo payments expire they disappear from the system, so there is no record of when the three free hours should start.
I often don’t have cash, so I use a parking disc to show the time of arrival with a note about the Green Scheme. So far that has worked, but as electric vehicle use increases, it would be good to get the Green Scheme time limits programmed into RingGo.