With rumours of cashless payments being the way forward in council-owned car parks, councillors claim the truth has been hidden from them.

Speaking at Allerdale Borough Council’s virtual council meeting on Wednesday evening, multiple councillors shared their frustration and concerns with cashless parking payments, as well as the number of broken machines within the borough.

Parking meters in Keswick, Cockermouth, Maryport and more have been reported broken throughout the summer – the peak season for the council in profiting from its car parks.

And with cashless parking being the key method of payment during the pandemic, in a bid to reduce the transmission of the virus, councillors have branded the machines "totally unreliable", and worry cashless payment will remain the norm.

Councillor Allan Daniels was the first to raise the issue, saying: "Now that cash payments are being restored to our parking metres, can I be assured this will be permanent?"

"I have heard persistent rumours there are plans to return to cashless metres. This will impact a segment of the population who do not have smart phones or credit cards."

He continued: "Using cards and phones to pay is not fit for purpose, and totally unreliable.

"One only has to walk through any of our car parks to find a queue of people bewildered and frustrated, unable to make payments."

His concerns were echoed by Councillor Sally Lansbury, who felt facts had been kept from councillors.

"Councillors again are not being given the full picture on this," she said.

"We each have all thought the problem was localised, and we thought our problem was in Keswick or due to broadband, but we gradually found out that the same problems also exist at Maryport [and] Cockermouth.

"It's disappointing that the council's culture seems to be that councillors aren't given the full picture when there's a problem."

Coun Lansbury continued, stating that while visitor numbers were "at 160% of what they normally are", income was down for seven out of eight of the summer weeks at Bell Close car park at Keswick, with funds at all other council-owned car parks in the town being down for six-out-of-eight weeks.

"This will be having a big impact on Allerdale's income," she said.

"The problems with the machines are being very slow to be dealt with, but also the cashless payments will have had a huge impact.

"We need to look at these figures very, very carefully before we go forward with cashless."

The queries were to be dealt with by Councillor Anthony Markley, but as he was unable to attend the meeting, councillors are awaiting a written response.