CEREDIGION council has spent around £80,000 replacing car park ticket machines damaged by vandals or which have suffered other malfunctions in Cardigan, Aberystwyth and New Quay, the Cambrian News can reveal.

Last year Cardigan traders said that a non-working machine at a town centre car park was a “massive boost” to trade in the few weeks it was unusable - and a scrutiny committee has said more needs to be done to correctly log and report machine faults.

However, it has been revealed that during June and July six new machines have been installed in Cardigan, with one removed from Fairfield car park moved to the Bath House car park.

The report said: “Where replacement machines have been installed, this has been done where machines are approaching their end of life.

“Other considerations have included the installation of replacement or additional machines where revenue protection is a particular issue.

“The capital costs associated with the installation of replacement machines can vary between £8,000 and £10,000.”

A report prepared for members of the thriving communities scrutiny committee meeting recommended to Cabinet that problems with machines across the county need to be “logged correctly” and resolved in a timely manner.

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