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Nick Lester's long-championed vision of a single number for phone parking across London is finally becoming reality. Five years after a single number was originally mooted, almost two thirds of the phone parking coverage within London is accessed by a single phone number - 020 3046 0010. The market development has occurred naturally, without encountering any of the issues cautiously highlighted by London Councils, when they foresaw a "patchwork quilt" of offerings across the Capital. The much discussed alternative, a technical "hub" has failed to progress due to four major stumbling blocks:
"Phone parking is becoming ubiquitous within the Capital and that is to be welcomed" he says. "In these cash-strapped days for Councils, Heads of Departments have to focus expenditure where it will be most effective and, under normal circumstances, introducing and encouraging motorists to move to digital parking payments as part of a strategy towards digital enforcement is a very cost-effective way to generate savings." "I don't suppose I have been alone in wondering whether the costs of funding and operating a secure centralised hub had really been thought through" Rasores continues. "So the fact that market forces are now leading to digital parking convergence in the Capital, without the need for a technical solution, has got to be good news for the parking industry as a whole." Notes 14 London Authorities now offer phone parking. These, listed by supplier, are: RingGo The London Boroughs of Brent, Bromley, Ealing, Hounslow, Lewisham, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Southwark and Wandsworth (in part) Total area = 186.4 sq miles Paybyphone (formerly Verrus) City of Westminster and the London Boroughs of Barnet, Enfield, Islington, Tower Hamlets Total Area = 86.8 sq miles Parkmobile The London Borough of Wandsworth Total area= 13.2 sq miles |
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