Car parks are not a “cash cow” for the council a councillor has said, arguing that new card only machines are intimidating and cruel to elderly people.

Cllr Elizabeth Evans had previously raised concerns about the accessibility of cashless car park machines introduced by Ceredigion County Council and said this week you still see queues forming as people struggle to use them.

“I don’t think we should kid ourselves that we don’t use it as a cash cow,” she said.

Cllr Evans said that the impact of car park charges on town centres had been recognised by Audit Wales and the council needed to “look seriously at reducing this income and not relying on this huge income from parking charges.”

At thriving communities overview and scrutiny committee on Thursday (20 January) councillors were updated on proposals relating to the council’s pay and display car parks from October 2019 which include standardisation charges, simplifying season tickets, and reducing the frequency of changes to fees and charges.

Further suggestions were made to cabinet at that time, but the pandemic had a significant impact on the service’s ability to progress projects and “work beyond maintaining the delivery of front line services,” a report from Gerwyn Jones, corporate manager for environmental services states.

The additional proposal included considering transferable daily tickets, free parking for the first two hours of the day, more card only machines, and print at home tickets.

Cllr Evans asked if the type of machines used would be changed or improved, adding for elderly people in particular it’s a “cruel way to do it.”

She said there is a “sea of information” on how to use them and when a queue forms behind someone struggling with “complicated” instructions “it’s really intimidating.”