NORTH Devon Council (NDC) will be upgrading its pay and display ticket machine fascias to enable every car park to take payment by card and coins, offering more flexible payment options for customers from Monday, April 25.

Across the district, there are 31 machines that currently only take coin payments.

In a two-phase plan, all machines in Barnstaple, Ilfracombe and South Molton which are currently “coin only” will be upgraded to take both contactless card and coin payments.

Leader of North Devon Council, Councillor David Worden, says: “I welcome this upgrade to machines with the technology to take card payments.

“We are pleased to be continuing our ‘no minimum charge’ for card payments.

“The machines will still operate in much the same way but offer additional functionality by accepting contactless card payments, as well as coins if people prefer.

This provides more modern and convenient payment options.”

Customers can expect to see the new fascias in all NDC car parks by early May.

All NDC car parks still have the option to pay by app or phone using RingGo, and this will remain the case.