Anger as Swindon car park machine out of order 'for months'

Residents have complained that Prospect Place car park in Old Town, close to Victoria Road, has one machine that has been out of order for a long time, with the other very temperamental.

Martin Buck said that the general state of the pay station is "dirty and overgrown" and said that one of the ticket machines had been "out of action for several months".

"The other machine has had a coin jammed in the slot for several months, making it unusable," he said.

The coin has now been removed, but, as of Monday, September 21, the other ticket machine was still out of use, with tape placed over the coin slot.

Graffiti is painted on both the machines and the notice board.

And residents claim that the 'working' machine does not always take money or issue tickets.

"We come to Swindon on a regular basis, and very often visit Old Town," said Phil, who was using the car park on Monday.

"One [machine] is closed off, and the other one takes money when it feels like it - it might give you a ticket, it might not.

"Swindon council needs to sort it, because I know that this has been going on for months."

There is a 'Pay by phone' option, but this is not something that all residents feel able to do.

We don't all have online banking. There should be all three options available - coins, cards, and online payments, said Mr and Mrs Wheals, also visiting the car park on that day.

A Swindon Borough Council spokesperson said on September 22: “We recognise the broken ticket machine at Prospect Place car park is causing frustration for residents and visitors.

 “Unfortunately, our current parking contractor has been unable to source the parts required to repair the machine and, while replacing the machine outright has been considered, this would not represent good value for money given that the Council is currently in the process of retendering its parking services contract for our surface level car parks.

"This will see new payment machines installed across our surface level car parks and we expect the new contract to be in place by next spring.

 “In the meantime, alternative payment options remain available, including the PayByPhone service, and we continue to monitor the performance of the remaining machine.

 “We also acknowledge concerns about the appearance of the area around the pay station and arranged for the vegetation to be cleared this afternoon (22 Sep).”