Rutland County Council is temporarily suspending cash payments for parking as part of its response to COVID-19.

From Tuesday March 24, ticket machines in council car parks in both Uppingham and Oakham will no longer accept coins. Free 30-minutes parking is still available.

Drivers will still be able to pay for parking using their mobile phones, through the dedicated RingGo parking service.

RingGo allows cashless payments online, via a smartphone app, by text message or over the phone using an automated payment service. For more information or to register your vehicle, go to: ringgo.co.uk.

Parking tariffs are the same when paying by RingGo. Each of Rutland County Council's car parks has a unique four-digit RingGo code to identify their locations. However, you can roam between car parks for the duration of your session, once you have paid.

To avoid paying for text reminders when you park with RingGo, please ensure you have disabled this option in among your account settings at: ringgo.co.uk.

Councillor Lucy Stephenson, Cabinet Member for Transport at Rutland County Council, said: "To prioritise the health and safety of the public and our staff, we're temporarily moving to cashless-only payments in all our car parks, until further notice.

"Reducing the need to handle coins and touch keypads is an added infection prevention measure that we hope will further reduce the risk of people transmitting COVID-19.

"There is still the option to pay for parking with your mobile phone and we hope people will understand why it's necessary to take this precaution."

Oakham Nub news is sharing the latest government advice on CoronaVirus, which can be seen here.