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| Almost a year after the plan for a single telephone number for parking by phone across the capital was announced, London Councils, the think-tank tasked with introducing the scheme, has yet to formally issue a specification let alone begin the process of issuing a tender for the scheme. Frustrated by the delay, and with phone parking now becoming increasingly widely used across the capital, Cobalt Telephone Technologies which owns RingGo, the phone parking system used in the majority of London boroughs which have pay-by-phone parking, has decided to act. It has developed a parking telephone hub for London as a whole which is being made available for test from today. The hub developed by Cobalt provides a single London phone number allowing direct connection to all the park-and-phone operators in the capital. The company aims to stimulate councils to adopt the system and is contacting them today asking them to try out the system which it has set up and is ready to take calls. "Back in 2006 London Councils did some useful work in stimulating discussion about the issue but to be frank it has stalled since. For us it is easier just to build things than talk about them. Our aim today is to show just how easily a London hub can operate by delivering a system which is now there and ready to use," says Harry Clarke, commercial director of Cobalt. "Providing one memorable number which people parking across London can use, regardless of the underlying cashless parking system, has to make life a lot easier both for Londoners and those visiting. "The system we have built and are launching to all councils today is a fully scaled service, capable of handling all the phone parking calls currently made in London - and with capacity to expand as new authorities come on board," says Clarke. |
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