PLANS are taking shape to bring all pay by phone car parking systems across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole into one simplified application.

At present, the three boroughs all use different external providers to facilitate their respective mobile payment operation.

Local Government Reorganisation in Dorset on April 1 will bring all council services together under one set up.

However with contracts set to run for different lengths of time with the payment companies, Cllr Mike Greene, Bournemouth Borough Council portfolio holder for transport, told the Daily Echo officers had been working on a Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole app which would provide motorists with a streamlined process.

"As part of BCP, the contracts have different lengths to run, but we would expect they would converge," said Cllr Greene.

"We are looking at something which will give more flexibility.

"We are working on there being a BCP app which will mean you go on it and it does not matter whether it is RingGo or PayByPhone, wherever you are in the conurbation you will go on and all the interface with the individual providers will happen behind the scenes."

Parking rates across the conurbation are all set to different charge schedules, which could be subject to a review when BCP comes into force.

The differences do not end there however, with the three existing local authorities currently using different pay by phone firms.

The Christchurch and East Dorset council partnership uses RingGo, with motorists hit with a flat rate 20p "convenience fee" on top of the standard parking charge.

Bournemouth has used PayByPhone for some time, while Poole switched platform last year and currently uses JustPark.

Robert Pickernell, Borough of Poole assistant parking services manager, said: “In November 2013, Bemrose Phone and Pay successfully tendered for our cashless parking contract for two years with an extension for a further two years. In April 2018, Bemrose Phone and Pay chose not retender and from the applicants, JustPark were successful in their tender.

Addressing concerns over the storage of people's personal data and bank details, Mr Pickernell said: “Both companies put in place robust data protection policies to comply with our strict data protection laws.

"Their policies state that parking users details will not be passed on to any other organisation or person; the storage and supply of such information will be done in full compliance with data protection requirements that are current at the time; all personal data is held in an encrypted form using the Advanced Encryption Standard AES-256; and they will employ suitable measures to protect the security of data captured and stored in connection with the Contract amongst other measures.

"We expect every company we have a contract with to comply with all relevant data protection laws.”