Parking machines broken at St John’s and St Mary’s car parks

The network problem affected parking machines that rely on people using the contactless card payment system at St John’s and St Mary’s car parks in Colchester.

In addition, phone lines were down at Colchester Council’s Rowan House offices for two hours from 9am yesterday which impacted on calls about most customer issues from benefits, to housing and waste collection.

The car parks are also operated by Colchester Council.

Colchester resident Caroline Mole parked at St Mary’s on Easter Monday shortly after the machines stopped working – but said customers were also unable to pay by cash.

She said: “They had signs up at a couple of machines saying no card payments but it actually extended to them all.

“A few of us bandied together to pay by cash - a woman gave me some money as I was with my son and didn’t have the right amount of change - and then realised they wouldn’t accept that either.

“I had to download the MiPermit app to pay but obviously it is not good for people who couldn’t do that. No one was around to ask for help, as expected being a Bank Holiday, and quite a few people were angry.”

The phone lines and machines were working again by 12 noon yesterday.

A council spokesman said notices informing customers of the problem at the car parks went up at 9.20am on Monday.

He added: “Unfortunately, an ongoing power outage at Rowan House that began on Easter Sunday has also affected pay machines at St Mary’s and St John’s car parks. Whilst MiPermit and cash payments are working throughout, contactless card payments have not been possible.

“We are working to resolve this issue as soon as possible and apologise for any inconvenience.”

He added the customers may have been trying to use cash at machines that have previously been altered to take card payments only.

The power issue was in relation to a network connected by cables at the car parks on Balkerne Hill and Southway and the offices Rowan House, in Sheepen Place.