Winchester City Council is introducing new ticket machines into its existing park and ride sites at St Catherine's View and Barfield Close.

The new machines, using smartcard technology, will allow the council to offer a better discount payment card to park and ride users.

Currently, cards can be purchased at a fixed discounted cost and used to pay for parking, with the full price deducted from the card each time it is used. Discounts range from 5% up to 20% on the highest valuecards.

The new scheme uses smartcards with chip technology that can be purchased and encoded with any value over £25. A set 20% discount will be applied when the card is used to pay for parking, deducting £1.20 from the smartcard, instead of the usual £1.50 daily charge.

This means the discount is obtained by motorists as they park, and not upfront when the existing card is purchased at the parking office. It also simplifies matters if a card is redeemed with "cash" still on it.

During the installation period, both the current cards and the new smartcards can be used in the alternative machines in each car park. But after Monday, January 27th, the existing cards will no longer be valid as the old machines will have been removed.

Full details of the scheme are displayed on ticket machines. Customers with existing cards can return them and receive a refund of any unused credit, or exchange it for a new card to the same value.