Parking attendants in Weston-super-Mare have come up with an ingenious way of ensuring they socially distance when asking people to pay for tickets.
Instead of having to get up close to motorists wanting to park with their card reader machines, the attendants have come up with the idea of attaching the payment machines to badminton racquets.
The clever hack means the attendant can stand a safe distance away from the customer while taking payment.
The idea was the brainchild of the team of attendants although the council has confirmed it is happy to ‘reimburse the cost of any equipment needed.’
Parking bays along the seafront were closed earlier this summer to give more space for social distancing.
But when crowds started to throng the resort in search of sun, sand and sea, the authority was forced to re-open them to help meet demand for space.
North Somerset Council executive member for parking Councillor Mark Canniford said: “Our parking attendants have clearly used their imagination with this one – it was completely their own idea.
“I am all in favour of it if it makes it easy for our customers and our staff to adhere to social distancing guidelines and if it makes people feel safer when it comes to paying for parking.
“We would happily reimburse the cost of the racquets if the attendants approached us.”
