Cheshire East Council could be discriminating against older people with its plans to make all but one car parks in Nantwich cashless.
That was the claim made at Nantwich Town Council, as they discussed CEC’s bid to make all car parks cashless apart from Snow Hill.
On all other council-run car parks, users would have to pay for by debit card or via a parking app on a mobile device.
But town councillors blasted the plans when they met last week, and have called on Cheshire East to rethink.
The topic was raised by member of the public David Marren, a former councillor.
He told the meeting: “This is potentially discriminatory against people who are of a certain age who struggle with technology or can’t afford a smart phone.
“And I want the town council to make this known in their response.”
Cllr Peter Groves agreed, adding: “I have the same concerns about this.
“I am concerned about the Civic car park being cashless. I use it almost every day and I see a lot of people my age and older using it.
“A lot do not have a smart phone, and even if they did some are not able to use apps.
“When it went cashless during Covid, many I know went to Whitchurch instead where they could pay with cash or park for free.
“I’m not convinced just having Snow Hill as cash car park is adequate, and we should consider asking Cheshire East to make the Civic car park cash as well.”
Cllr Geoff Smith said most people have debit cards, but the problem was the time it takes to use the machines.
“I’ve been in a queue for a while waiting for people who can’t read the instructions on the machines,” he added.
“There are problems using all forms of payment.”
Cllr Arthur Moran admitted as a member of the highways and transport committee on Cheshire East that he had voted the plan through.
He said the plan – to have just one cash car park in each town across the borough – would save Cheshire East around £100,000 a year.
Cllr Caroline Kirkham said: “I fully support Cllr Groves, this is the wrong decision. I’m fairly tech savvy, but I would use cash every time.
“People feel insecure at times using cashpoints with their cards – people do feel vulnerable.
“Snow Hill is also free after 3pm so people don’t have to pay then anyway.”
Cllr Groves added: “They need to look at this through the eyes of those not so young anymore, and use some common sense.”
The council agreed to request CEC consider making keeping Civic Centre car park cash payments as well as Snow Hill.
If people are that bothered, why not make the civic hall car park the “cash” car park instead of snow hill? As others have said, snowhill is, and will continue to be, free after 3 anyway, so less of a problem.
Says it all stupid idiots who can’t even run cheshire East without killing it !!! 🙄 it’s a huge joke ! People are really getting sick to the teeth of all the rubbish they are doing ! No logic at all…… pathetic
I do not own a smartphone (and I am not the only one), so it does not matter how easy an app is to use!
What a bunch of morons.This is yet another invitation for scammers to get their mucky hands on our hard earned cash. If scammers can. target cash machines outside banks,then a car park will be a piece of cake.
There should always be an option for either cash or card or app. Technology should be a positive in that it should give everybody more options not less. People are talking about saving all this money, maybe as an idea we should go back to FREE parking then we wouldn’t have to worry about how to pay !! If the council are saving £100,000 a year by making it cashless how much money are they making ???
utter nonsense on here, its not a matter of learning new skills, its a matter of savings as an automatic system would save time over collecting cash payments. The thing these councilors have overlooked probably because they are all men is the fact local folk using a car park need to be close to the surgery, civic hall, dentists shops, library, market will be the Marks and Spencer one, not Snow Hill, as that is full of gym n swim folk why not have pre paid payment cards put on the dashboard for a year, or a month, pop into the civic offices or buy online, no need to purchase anything like the expense of these new machines will incur, anyway its free after 3pm
I thought being a democracy we are expected to represent the views of the majority i.e. those who are capable of using new technology. We must not continually bow to the views of the minority. Consider them by all means but the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
Who is this policy discriminating against? All the people I know, some of them in their 80’s use credit and debit cards on a regular basis, even my late father at 97 used cards much of the time. Maybe the councilors objecting to this policy should stop being so patronising towards older people.
I have to agree with Chris Moorhouse’s comments. Cheshire East Council does not require 82 Councillors . The number of 50 or 60 would be more than sufficient to represent the people of Cheshire East.
Again this is an example of thousands of pounds of tax payers money.
I have no doubt most of the councillors will be dreaming up their next pet vanity project to add to the financial waste.
Why is it that after a certain age learning something new becomes impossible? When I’m 80 I’d be quite happy to learn how to do something in a different way. This argument just doesn’t hold water for me. Personally, if you’re ‘old’ and can still drive then you should be able to work a 3 touch app on your phone to pay for parking. It’s a classic example of not willing to progress with technology.
CEC needed to rethink this proposal as it seems obvious to me that the civic hall car park should be the one to remain cash friendly. The health centre, civic hall and library are all served by this car park and there is also easy access to the town square. All these facilities are regularly used by the older generation. Snow Hill is better suited to the young with the gym and bars near by.
This isn’t about young and old, it’s about willingness to learn a new skill. My nearly 80yr old mother is perfectly capable of using ‘technology’, she understands it enhances her life.
Does the machine have a facility for non contactless debit cards ? These are issued to people with basic current accounts.
CEC can save £100k by just reducing the number of Councillors by 8 from 82 to 74. Today even 74 is excessive. This will be a permanent saving.