General Chat

Has anybody else come across this problem yet?

We have just had some friends from NZ to stay, and took them out for the day to visit a very popular tourist attraction. The local car-park wasn't free, so OH went to put in the required sum, only to discover that it wouldn't take the new £1 coins. :-( :-(

Between us we managed to find enough 50's and 20's to pay, but I wonder what would happen if you used that as a reason for not paying any fines charged for non-payment.

We don't have individual street parking meters round here, but it must be costing local councils a fortune if they all have to be adapted to take the new coins!

Same £1 coin problem in Devon.

My car looks lopsided because of the weight of bags of 50p; 20p & 10p coins in the door pocket - just for such annoying occasions.

North Middlesex Hospitals car park in Edmonton has the same problem. Only takes old £1 coins.
We had to dash up there as my dad was taken in & we only had one old coin. Someone on the queue swapped one new coin for old just giving us an hour as we had no more change. Hubby wouldn't use the other option, pay by phone... :-|

Yes both local council run car parks only use the old coins . Plus they have put up the charges recently so you struggle to find £1.50 for two hours parking. Used to be £1.20

I keep putting aside the old coins in my car so I don't get caught out

Darned annoying :-(

I.m keeping one of each in the car! Our local Morrisons has changed to new for their trolleys - I haven't checked the parking as have disabled pass. Have we been given an expiry date for the old coins?

at one time a parking meter was able to take 5p coins..BUT
it used to lock up when I got to 80 p
in my opinion it should be able to take the whole amount!! £1:20(at that time....)

It was published months ago that this would happen ..... read it in an online paper.


If it is the same as happened here .......... the new $1 coin is the wrong weight or the wrong shape.


The councils and others in charge of pay machines were TOLD this would happen, but none of them did anything until after the coins were introduced.

Sounds as if the same is happening with you.


BTW Mildred ........... many of our parking meters, on the street and in parking lots, can only be paid by phone.

We don't have a cell phone :-(


OH usually pays by credit card now .............. and that or phone is often the only option, even for short stay meters. No coins at all.

Our Morrison, Tesco and Sainsbury trollies are free. Our M & S trollies take both types of pound coins.

Other than setting an expensive trap for the unwary I cannot see the point of coin paid parking and the concomitant time limited parking. There are many better options in widespread use. Hopefully the new £ will force the end of these relics.

In any case the days of parking for personal vehicles in city centres are numbered.

so the demise of the multi story carpark is nigh?

shouldn't think so....too much of a cash cow, methinks...

Well I go to my High Street for the Bank . dentists etc and you have to use the car parks

many roads are resident permit parking only .

i do online banking as much as possible but there are times a visit is necessary
plus for both the Bank and dentists you never know long long you have to wait .

i take two hours just in case as its cheaper than getting a £60 parking fine

There are more profitable options than car parking in large cities.
Diesel and petrol vehicles are all polluting.
Other options for getting around expand all the time - crossrail, Uber, Lyft, city electric car rental by the hour.
Disruptive change is coming first to large cities, then smaller provincial cities.
Not good news for NCP.

Apart from Glasgow and the surrounding area, there are no large, small or other sized cities round here. There are small towns and large villages, all picturesque and full of tourists at this time of year. The only way to reach many of them is by car, and those cars have to park somewhere.

Supermarket trollies are a simpler problem. Our Morrison's and Tesco's are free, and for the others you only need one old coin, euro or token, because you get it back again!!

Interestingly I have only had just one of the new coins given to me in change, all the rest have been the old version.

We keep a handful of £1 coins in the car for parking etc but it rare we use them. Whilst we do have coin op pay and display parking we tend to avoid them and use the multi car park where we pay by card. That we we only pay for what we use.