New £1 coins are just not the ticket for car park machines in Inverness
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NEW pound coins are proving a headache for privately-operated car park owners in Inverness.
They were introduced last month and car park ticket machines need to be recalibrated to accept the new ones.
In Inverness, this includes the two-level car deck adjacent to Rose Street’s multi-storey car park and the Strothers Lane car park, run by Smart Parking.
Charlie Barbour from Inverness Properties, whose company manages the car deck on Rose Street, has four machines at the complex, two on the top floor and two on the bottom floor.
They are currently only able to accept the old-style £1 coins.
He said: "I didn’t realise it was a problem until we received a couple of complaints from customers. But we have acted on it immediately and we have told the car park company which manages the site for us to sort this out as soon as possible – we hope that will be in the next 10 to 14 days."
He added: "It will be an inconvenience to change the machines, but we would imagine that it would not be terribly expensive. We don’t know the costs yet. At this point we’re just more keen to get it changed."
A spokesman for Smart Parking said machines were being updated across the company’s sites, and the process would be complete soon.
The new 12-sided £1 coin was brought into circulation on March 28.
People are being urged to return the old £1 coins before they lose their legal tender status on October 15.
They can either spend them before that date or bank them now.
They can also be taken to the Post Office and exchanged for the new editions.
