CAR park ticket machines are set to be upgraded for more reliable payments.

However, this could also lead to drivers being hit with emission-based surcharges.

Herefordshire Council, which operates 32 public car parks with 54 machines, is seeking interest from firms which can replace or retrofit the current stock of pay-and-display machines, improve card service processing, install vehicle registration mark keypads, and manage and maintain all its pay and display machines.

Several car park machines in Ross-on-Wye were upgraded at the beginning of this year and now have a more stable mobile connection.

The machines now process transactions via 4G modems. But some areas having limited signal strength, resulting in a considerable delay to customers making card payments, according to a council document accompanying the invitation.

It would like the upgraded machines to offer better connectivity and to be able to accept vehicle registrations numbers associated with tickets – and would like to establish whether replacing some or all the machines instead would be more cost effective.

The council also wants to hear whether machines could be adapted “to respond to potential political or regulatory changes in the future, such as adding emission-based surcharges.”

The Guardian reported in April that around one in five councils already add clean-air levies to their parking charges as well as to residents’ parking permits – which the AA described as a stealth tax on motorists.

Herefordshire Council also wants an external provider to manage all its car park machines as well as all its on-street pay-and-display machines in Hereford.

The closing date for responses from interested parties is Friday, June 20. Any procurement of services would come later, with a view to having the new machines installed by next February, the document says.

A Herefordshire Council spokesperson said: “This is an early-stage exercise whereby the council is seeking information and feedback from the market on a range of possible solutions.”