THE LANES Shopping Centre has said that changes to its multi-storey car park are 'vital' to its improvement.

This comes after the Carlisle shopping centre announced that its car park on Lowther Street would be transitioning to a cashless and 'contactless only' system, as opposed to the ticketed system it previously used.

Installation of this system is also taking place 'this week', with the Lanes confirming this on social media.

Susan Young, centre manager at the Lanes, explained how the changes form part of 'vital' improvements to the local shopping centre whilst also assuring customers that the new system will be 'reliable' and 'quick and easy to use'.

She said: “As a busy shopping centre, it's vital that we improve our equipment to ensure it meets modern standards.

"The changes to the car park at The Lanes, are intended to provide our customers with a reliable system that’s quick and easy to use – there’s no need for paper tickets and payments are simple and secure."

Susan also detailed plans to deploy additional staff members to help customers who may be struggling with the new system.

"For anyone who needs help there will be additional members of The Lanes team on duty who will be happy to assist and help guide our customers through the new operating process," she added.

The new system was announced in September and will the entry barriers to the car park no longer issue entry tickets and be replaced by an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system which will record a vehicle's registration plate on arrival. 

Customers will then be asked to 'take note of your registration number' and input this into the pay machine before exiting, where a tariff will be calculated.