Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Angus Council set to bring in coin-operated parking meters at cost of £43,000

Angus Council’s administration is set to bow to “people power” and perform a costly U-turn over parking.

Proposals have been drawn up to place coin-operated meters in nearly half of the county’s 33 off-street car parks. They will be considered by councillors on Thursday.

The council said recommendations to enhance the service by installing 14 solar-powered coin-operated meters and signage at a cost of £43,266 are in response to public demand, highlighted through responses to a recent short survey.

Almost 75% of people favoured the introduction of coin-operated meters, with two-thirds of those who took part saying they would use the car parks “more frequently” if they could use coins.

Angus councillor Lynne Devine.

Stung by the backlash over the system brought in last November, the maximum waiting period has already been doubled from two to four hours following feedback from motorists.

The local authority also introduced a monthly permit and removed the need to key in vehicle registrations following further tweaks to the scheme.

SNP group leader Lynne Devine said: “This is coming very late in the day for some of our businesses.

“The SNP group gave the administration a way out of their mess several times months ago, but they refused on every occasion.

“Now, they are bringing this report before us on Thursday which is very long and complicated, giving a lot of options but at great expense.

“In reality we still feel that the smaller towns are being badly hit and coin-operated machines will not necessarily solve this.”

The November 1 introduction of off-street charging brought empty car parks across Angus

The SNP will be discussing the issue at its group meeting to decide how to respond ahead of Thursday’s meeting.

Recommendations are for coin-operated machines to be installed at four off-street car parks in Arbroath and two in each of Brechin, Carnoustie, Forfar, Kirriemuir and Montrose.

Communities convener Mark Salmond admitted the council “moved too far and too fast” in its “drive to be digital”.

He said: “That came through loud and clear from the conversation with our communities, which was asked for by the Member Officer Working Group set up to look into adding cash payments.

“I do regret that some people have found difficulties with the cashless-only option, but that is something that we are trying to put right.

“We want to make the process of paying to park in Angus as simple as we can for everyone.

“There is a cost involved in these solutions, but these are refinements that have been identified and called for by the public and by elected members from all sides of this council.

“We have heard what was being said and I hope all will welcome our desire to find an equitable solution.

“Due to the financial circumstances that we find ourselves in, scrapping off-street parking charges was never an option.

“In common with other local authorities, we must find income where we can and cannot afford to be one of the few councils not to charge for parking.

“But we are also committed to ensuring that paying to park in Angus works for Angus and its people, which is why we will continue to monitor and review the scheme.”