VISITORS to Wimbleball Lake can now pay for parking on their mobile phones as an alternative to touching shared machine keypads for cards or cash.

The reservoir is one of eight sites where the South West Lakes is rolling out RingGo, the UK’s cashless parking provider.

RingGo offers motorists a choice of ways to pay: the most popular is via the RingGo app, which can be downloaded free of charge from the App Store or Google Play Store. Those without a smartphone can book their parking by calling, sending a text message, or paying online.

For visitors who pay for parking via RingGo, there is no need to display a ticket in the windscreen, as Countryside Wardens will check the vehicle registration details against the RingGo database, using an internet connected handheld device.

Neil Reeves, South West Lakes head of environment and community, said, “We have seen incredible visitor numbers to the South West Lakes car parks over the last six months as people have been really grateful to get out and enjoy the freedom and connection with nature that our lakes offer.

“We are always looking at ways to improve the visitor experience and safety of our sites, so the introduction of touch free parking with RingGo means that motorists can pay to park quickly and easily without having to use pay and display machines.

“Parking revenues collected at our sites help towards the maintenance and upkeep of our locations along with our hugely valuable conservation work, so we’re sure visitors understand these charges are in place for the right reason. We’re just extremely pleased that with RingGo, we can now offer these payments in a manner which makes things as safe as possible for both visitors and staff.”

Peter O’Driscoll, Managing Director for RingGo said, “South West Lakes manage incredibly beautiful sites across the South West. We’re delighted to be able to help the charity in its aim of sharing these sites safely, with more and more motorists.”