I recently parked at a meter in Golders Green. On the meter was a label saying “No change? In a hurry? Pay by phone”.

The meter clearly gives one the option to pay either with cash, or by phone.

The meter rejected the coins I put in it and accordingly it was out of order. Until such time as a bay is suspended because a meter is out of order, one can park there free of charge. It is advisable to put a note to this effect on one’s car.

I could see nothing on the meter that said that I had to pay by phone if the meter would not accept cash and as it rejected my cash, I did not pay to park.

It seems to me Barnet Council is deliberately not repairing its parking machines to maximise revenue, but until such time as there is a definitive ruling that when a machine will not accept cash, one must pay by phone, one is reasonably entitled to park without paying at a machine that is out of order.

Perhaps the current administration would be less inclined to extort money out of pensioners and others if it had not been so careless in losing a substantial sum of the residents’ reserves which had been placed in Icelandic banks, all in the pursuit of a marginally better interest rate?

Alan Grahame
Holders Hill Road, Hendon