New 5p and 10p coin chaos predicted
The introduction of new, thicker coins is going to cause problems at parking meters and vending machines, warns an industry body.
New 5p and 10p coins set to be introduced in the spring won’t be accepted by some parking meters and vending machines, it’s been claimed.
Apparently, many automatic machines have not been set up to take the new coins and some machines won’t accept the current coins, according to the Automatic Vending Association.
The new coins are the same size as the current ones in circulation but are thicker as they are made of steel, rather than the current alloy of cupro-nickel - 75% copper and 25% nickel. This is a cost-cutting exercise introduced by the Labour Government, which it estimated will save between £7 million and £8 million a year.
However, it’s claimed that the cost of changing machines to accept the new coins could be as high as £80 million over two years.
The Local Government Association says the Treasury should pay for the changes to council parking meters, which it estimates will cost local authorities in England and Wales £5.5 million.
Both Glasgow and Edinburgh city councils have announced that their parking meters won’t accept the new coins, with the smallest coin accepted now 20p. Both said that the cost of the changing the meters is too high.
The coins were originally going to be introduced last year, but they were delayed because of concerns that machines such as parking meters and payphones would not be ready in time. It remains to be seen if they’ll be delayed again…
More top stories: The phoney gas and electricity 'price war' | How to retire like a Welshman
Comments
-
Many old coin mechs have the coin pass a magnet to ensure that it's not an appropriately sized washer. The New coins? Hmmmm steel discs.. A bit like a washer without a hole. The newer mechs use induction and therefore 'measure' the underlying content of the coin. I guess they can be adjusted but that means sending an engineer to every machine because so few of them are online. Give it a few years and this won't be a problem any more. Machines are already being introduced with mobile phone SIMs so that they can automatically communicate with head office to say they've run out of diet coke or whatever. Point of Sale terminals can already be updated from a central server, I'm pretty sure that future generation vending machines will do the same so a new algorithm for the coin mech could be sent to all from head office with a single click. On the other hand, once we have NFC payments in our mobile phones, significantly fewer of us will be using coins anyhow.. You'll find that car parks will have multiple NFC enabled ticket machines and one or two taking coins. I was in Australia recently and paid for my street parking by entering my parking bay number into the machine and paying by mobile. The warden can then come along and wireless read from the machine which bays have a valid 'ticket'. No coins, no paper, no need for me to do the car-machine-car round trip and no need for the warden to climb amongst the cars to see who has paid. Neat.
REPORT This comment has been reported. -
I believe TAX AVOIDANCE is quite legal! Why should anyone pay more tax than they need to?
REPORT This comment has been reported. -
Have always said MP's should have run a successful company before they could be considered for the job as MP's - failed barristers, lawyers, spin doctors, trough robbers can not do joined up thinking - typical of LABOUR - look what they are doing now TAX AVOIDANCE - Blair, Brown, Milliband all at it - why aren't they being prosecuted ?
REPORT This comment has been reported.
Do you want to comment on this article? You need to be signed in for this feature
01 February 2012