Council could trial new parking meters (From Bucks Free Press)

Chiltern District Council could trial new parking meters

11:50am Wednesday 31st October 2012 in News By Andy Carswell

FED-UP councillors could ask to be guinea pigs for a new type of parking meter following a spate of attacks on their machines.

Money has gone missing from several parking meters in the Chiltern district from thieves desperate to steal the coins paid into them.

One in an Amersham car park has been out of action for nearly a fortnight after a drill was used to open it up, members of Chiltern District Council's cabinet were told yesterday.

Oliver Asbury, the authority's principal engineer, said: "It was targeted a couple of weeks ago. It was quite seriously drilled - they were out there for half an hour but nobody heard it."

Mr Asbury added the company which supplied the machines felt it was a problem unique to Chiltern: "We are the first in the whole of the country to have it happen."

That prompted cabinet member Mimi Harker to ask if the authority could trial a new type of machine in a bid to stop the problem.

Cllr Harker said: "Could we be a pilot for a new type of machine? If we are experiencing the latest trend of having our parking meters broken into, surely we would be a very good test area for any new products they have got coming up?

"We might volunteer to be a pilot for them and save ourselves some cash."

Mr Asbury said he would suggest the idea when he met with engineers from the machine suppliers, although he added it would cost £400,000 to replace all the machines.

He added the thefts from the meters had been reported to the police.

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