THE Phone-and-Pay scheme which was introduced by Waverley Borough Council, in all Waverley owned car parks back in November last year has been withdrawn due to contractual issues with the supplier.

And the findings and recommendations of an extensive review of Waverley’s car parks will be considered by members of Waverley’s executive committee this Tuesday (December 1).

For the first three months Waverley dismissed the SMS charges in hope of encouraging more motorists to sign up to the service, however once these three months were up the hidden charges were back in action. Motorists had to start paying 12p for the service of buying the ticket, and 10p for any text message that followed, which included time reminders.

Waverley Borough Council said it is unable to discuss the ‘contractual issues’ in more detail, nor confirm how much the service has cost Waverley taxpayers to set up and run since November 2014 as it is “commercially sensitive”.

Kevin Deanus, portfolio holder for operational services said: “In order to protect the interests of our customers and the interests of the council we have taken the decision to stop providing the service as the issues have not been resolved.

“Waverley has contacted all subscribers to advise them that the service is no longer available and to pay for their parking using the machines provided. The ability to pay for parking by phone is popular with our customers and we will be looking to provide a telephone payment facility as soon as possible”.

The Car Park Review 2015 recommends the reduction of car park charging hours by 30 minutes a dayfrom January 11, 2016.

The council has carried out a review of all of its 25 pay and display car parks to work out how they are being used, how the car parks are being maintained, charges and how they could be improved. The recommendations of the review are aimed at managing the car parks efficiently to meet visitor demand and reduce congestion in town centres.

A consultation to reduce the charging hours in all car parks across the borough by half an hour each day, taking charging hours from 8am to 7pm to 8am to 6.30pm, began in October.

Mr Deanus said: “We listened to feedback from the community which wanted to see charging hours dropped after they were extended to 7pm as part of the 2011 car park review. The move will cost the council in the region of £40,000 a year but would benefit town centre shops and businesses, as well as shoppers who prefer to do their shopping in the evenings.”

“The parking prices haven’t gone up since February 2012 but since then inflation has risen by 7.5 per cent. The recommendation is to increase the charges to reflect the rate of inflation. Even with a tariff increase, Waverley’s car parks would remain cheaper than many other borough council car parks, so people would still get an excellent deal.”