With the beautiful weather we are experiencing this week, visitors and residents will be flocking to the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole area, hoping to be able to park.

And BCP Council is making it easier, partnering with three of the biggest players in the market to bring a multi-vendor cashless parking service to the area.

People now have the choice of which parking app and service, PayByPhone, RingGo or JustPark, they’d like to use and download onto their phones regardless of which town they are parking in. All car parks in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole will now be listed and available to select on all three apps.

Drivers will benefit from an improved service such as:

• safe secure parking sessions with the ability to extend via the apps
• avoiding queues at parking machines
• easily accessible apps to download on smart phones
• trustworthy payment services and transactions
• social distancing in car parks made easier
• location services can be enabled to only show close-by car parks.

This will compliment BCP Council’s BCPBeachCheck app which has recently undergone a major upgrade including providing users with live information on car-parking spaces, such as how many are available at a number of BCP Council-operated car parks helping them to plan their journey.

Cllr Mike Greene, portfolio holder for Transport and Sustainability, BCP Council, said: “We are constantly reviewing our parking service and looking for ways to improve it. So I am really pleased that we are able to offer this multi-vendor service ahead of summer and our anticipated increase in demand for our car parks as national restrictions continue to ease.

“We want everyone to be able to enjoy our area and all the wonderful open spaces and facilities it has to offer with as little stress or worry as possible. This initiative should make things simpler for everyone as they don’t need to match the location to a particular provider, and it gives users the chance to find the cheapest and most convenient app for them.”

Cash parking is still available in some BCP Council car parks and on-street parking.