Here's the Borough Council response to the story posted earlier this week on plans to introduce mobile paraking enforcement in their town centre car parks:

'The Council is considering the possibility of adopting a new car parking system for Ormskirk.

After discussions with town centre businesses it became clear that one of the main issues for people was purchasing a ticket and then having to rush back to their cars unable to complete their business or shopping.

The system provided by Bemrose Mobile facilitates flexible payment options allowing visitors to Ormskirk to pay with cash as they do at present, but alternatively to either pay via a mobile app and top up their ticket or to pre-register for automated payments and have their fee deducted when they leave a car park; therefore people would not need to worry about having loose change to pay or about receiving a penalty charge notice if they have overstayed on their parking ticket.

No decision has yet been made on whether this system would be appropriate for Ormskirk’s car parks as the engineering issues around installing this technology are still being assessed.'

The Council's statement makes little sense.

Mobile phone top-up can and should be installed on the existing or new ticket machines. It doesn't require Automatic Number Plate Recognition Cameras.

Cameras will simply scare away a percentage of shoppers. The council is not usually so dense. There must be another reason they are pursuing this - likely a financial one.

The council should publish the confidential report so we can all form an opinion.

How about some free parking in Ormskirk . Rather than ' big brother cameras are watching you ' . You can park for free in Burscough , Hatterleys which are blooming .