WINCHESTER City Council is trialling a new method of paying for parking in two city centre car parks.

One machine in Colebrook Street and St. Peter Street car parks has been converted to accept credit/debit card payments which also includes new contactless technology.

The other change is that customers no longer have to pay up front for the time that they think that they might be staying for.

On arrival, visitors will need to insert their credit or debit card into the machine and key in their vehicle’s registration number.

At the end of their visit, they insert the same card into the machine again and it will then calculate the duration of the stay and charge accordingly.

Cllr James Byrnes, portfolio holder for transport and professional services said: “It’s now even easier for visitors to pay for their stay plus customers will only be charged for the time they are parked.

“Many people prefer to pay for services using cards these days so we are really pleased to offer this option to shoppers in Winchester plus the machine still acts as a Pay & Display machine and accepts coins.”

The new system still produces a pay and display ticket with a ‘tear-off’ reminder portion, it will also record the time that the credit or debit card was inserted, along with its associated vehicle registration number.