Sheffield business owner slams 'confusing and contradictory' parking meters

Shoppers are confused and businesses are suffering because of baffling parking meters in a Sheffield suburb.
Ecclesall Road.Ecclesall Road.
Ecclesall Road.

The problems centre on a Sheffield City Council scheme that allows time-pressed shoppers to park on the city's streets for 20 minutes for free.

However, a business owner on Ecclesall Road has noticed that many of the machines in his area have confusing and contradictory information on them - and he is worried about the effect this is having on his business.

Many of the machines have incorrect and contradictory information on them.Many of the machines have incorrect and contradictory information on them.
Many of the machines have incorrect and contradictory information on them.
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Jasper Lawrance, who has run greetings cards and giftware business Design Studio for the last 35 years, said they only noticed the problem yesterday.

He said: "There must be 20 meters on Ecclesall Road - all with the wrong instructions on them. It is not helpful.

"The side streets are ok but all the ones down the main road - from the Hunter's Bar roundabout to Marks and Spencer - are all wrong.

"There are even a couple of machines that don't even have the right buttons on them so they are telling people to press different coloured buttons than the machine has."

Many of the machines have incorrect and contradictory information on them.Many of the machines have incorrect and contradictory information on them.
Many of the machines have incorrect and contradictory information on them.
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Under the scheme, the council offer the users a free 20 minutes ticket on all machines - if they press the yellow followed by the green button.

However, Jasper says that on a large number of machines the instructions are wrong and ask drivers to press green for free ticket.

One some, users are asked to press a yellow button for a free ticket, despite the fact the machines only have red and green buttons.

Jasper says he is not only worried about the confusion this is causing his customers, but is also angry about the extra revenue the council will be collecting as a result.

Many of the machines have incorrect and contradictory information on them.Many of the machines have incorrect and contradictory information on them.
Many of the machines have incorrect and contradictory information on them.
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He added that he was 'amazed' the problem hadn't yet been spotted by the parking wardens who regularly patrol the area.

A spokesperson for Sheffield City Council said: "We would like to thank this gentleman for bringing this issue to our attention.

"All the machines have been going through tariff changes and these 20 machines were missed.

"We are planning to make the necessary changes within the next 24 hours."