Residents’ Association councillors have been chasing the council for sometime about the high number of ‘out of action parking machines’ locally. Please see below, a reply from the council to one of the e-mails – 

‘Thank you for your email regarding parking meters in Upminster.

We are aware of a number of machines currently defective across the borough which are unable to be repaired as they require new parts that we are unable to obtain due to the age of the machines. Manufacturers of our other newer machines as with most non-essential services are working with only limited engineers, in these instances we will continue to chase them to undertake the repair at the earliest opportunity.

We are aware of five machines in Upminster (Wilson Close (Aldis ) car park x1, Branfill Road, Corbets Tey Road x1, Corbets Tey (Hoppy Hall) car park x2) are presently inoperable. The two machines in Corbets Tey (Hoppy Hall ) car park are inoperable due to substantial damage to the machines caused by vandalism. An order with the manufacturers has been raised for an engineer to repair but as explained above they are operating with limited engineers.

As with all pay and display parking locations if no machines are operable at the location then Civil Enforcement Officers will not issue a Penalty Charge Notice for parking without displaying a ticket. We encourage all users, when trying to park where a machine is inoperable to the car parks team and report this on 01708 432 787 option 2.

We are waiting for new machines to be delivered, however a final decision has not yet been made as to where all the new machines will be placed around the borough, except for where they will replace the very old machines.’

By Editor on 16th March 2021   /   News   /   Leave a comment