Parking machines in Herefordshire are to be upgraded to prepare for the switchover to 4G.

The first phase of this will be to swap out the SIM cards in all machines beginning Monday 5 February. This will ensure payments can still be made by card once the switchover happens.

Machines may be out of service temporarily shortly after having the SIM cards swapped, and will be unavailable for card or cash payments whilst the switch over is taking place. The majority of our car parks have more than one machine available for use so many users will not be impacted by this work.  We have instructed our service provider to ensure that work is completed on those car parks where there is only a single machine at a time where disruption is kept to a minimum.  As an alternative, we would encourage people to use the RingGo service wherever possible

The works will cover all Council operated pay and display machines in the county, and the amount of time affected machines will be unavailable will vary from a few minutes to potentially over an hour. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

James Hughes, Parking Services Manager, said: “These works are absolutely necessary so that residents and visitors can continue to pay for parking by card in the county. Any disruption should be kept to an absolute minimum and I would urge motorists to use RingGo wherever possible. We apologise for any inconvenience, but these works will make sure that parking remains efficient and reliable in the county in future.”