Buying a paper parking ticket is set to become a thing of the past in Denbighshire.

Members of the council’s communities scrutiny committee were updated on the modernisation programme for car parks in the county.

As part of changes to how the facilities are run paperless billing will be brought in that could see people pay by entering their number plate into an app on their phone.

Upper Denbigh and Henllan county councillor, Glenn Swingler, said: “The new machines are great. For somebody who hardly evers carries around cash these days it’s nice to be able to just put my card up against the machine.”

Group Manager at the council, Mike Jones, said: “Cash is still an option at the moment but the plan is that all car parks will have a cash free option. At the moment it’s about 33% .

“We’re also looking at another cashless system that is app based. So that ties in with replacing the current disc based system. Instead of having a paper disc you’d have your number plate put in. That puts the onus on the members of the public to sign up the system which would drastically reduce the admin for our staff. But it also allows people to pay for shorter periods of parking.”

Over the last year as part of its investment in car parks the council has spent £268,000.

This spending has included refurbishing the Sky Tower car park in Rhyl which cost £150,000 and providing a new car park in the town.

Over the next four years an extra £1,095,000 will be spent on improvements to the council’s car parks.

The report to the committee highlighted the importance of the facilities to the local economy.

It said: “Our car parks play a key role in supporting our town centres and tourist attractions. They serve as a gateway to our towns; and for many car-based journeys, they will often be the first thing that visitors see when they alight from their vehicles. It is thus very important that our car parks are kept safe, clean, tidy, and are well-maintained.”