Councils told to use ‘one-stop-shop’ app to end ‘faff’ of paying for parking

All councils in England will be told to use the National Parking Platform (NPP), which has handled more than 10 million transactions since it was launched in May last year.

The non-profit, Government-developed platform allows drivers to pay for parking in all participating council car parks using their preferred app, aiming to stop the need for multiple apps.

Fifteen local authorities currently use the platform, now run by the British Parking Association, and the Government hopes to double that number by issuing statutory guidance advising councils to sign up.

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A spokeswoman for the Department for Transport (DfT) told the Press Association the NPP is in talks with several councils as part of efforts to encourage a greater uptake.

The renewed push was first reported in The i Paper

The Government has also asked councils to consider what other functions the platform could have, such as its potential to be used to pay for tolls and electric vehicle (EV) charging.

The push forms part of the Government’s Better Connected transport plan, which is expected to be published on Thursday and aims to improve travel across England by connecting roads, buses, trains and trams.

Ms Alexander said: “Parking shouldn’t be a faff. The fact that this platform has already handled more than 10 million transactions shows just how much people value a simpler, more straightforward way to pay.

“Now we want this platform to work harder for drivers in England. The way we drive is changing and so should the technology, which is why our Better Connected strategy will encourage more local councils to adopt the parking platform and then look to expand it beyond, to things like electric vehicle charging and paying tolls.”

In a statement, the DfT said confusion around how to pay for parking is one of the reasons drivers are hit with fines “they didn’t see coming”.

In a poll of 1,709 UK drivers published in October last year, the RAC found 73 per cent of those who had used a mobile app to pay for parking in the previous 12 months had suffered problems.

More than one in 10 people (13 per cent) said they could not work out how to use the parking app they had installed, a figure that doubled to 26 per cent for those aged 75 and above.

More than a third (36 per cent) of respondents said they had at least three parking apps installed on their phone and 15 per cent had four or more.

RAC senior policy officer Rod Dennis said: “Paying to park a car should be one of the simplest tasks any driver does, but with a plethora of different mobile parking payment apps now in existence, things have got a little more complicated.

“The roll-out of the National Parking Platform has the potential to change that, giving drivers the chance to use a single app of their choice.

“We now need as many operators as possible to join the scheme to make parking easier for everyone.”