Drivers using car parks owned by Allerdale Borough Council in and around Keswick have been faced with a wait of up to 20 minutes to pay for a ticket.
Last weekend proved a problem with queues of 20 people forming to buy their tickets at the machine in Lakeside car park next to Theatre by the Lake near Derwentwater.
The council also received complaints from visitors and local people on Tuesday when the ticket machine in Bell Close car park in the centre of Keswick was causing disruption.
To help protect staff from infection from coronavirus via coins and notes, the council took the decision to only accept card payments at car parking meters.
Customers were also encouraged to use the Mi-Permit app, although this can be disrupted by poor mobile phone reception.
A spokesman for Allerdale Borough Council said: “We are aware of some technical issues with our parking meters which means it is taking longer for some customers to purchase the ticket.
“We are working to resolve these issues and apologise for any inconvenience.
“We advise that anyone needing to pay for parking in one of our car parks use the Mi-Permit mobile app which can be downloaded from the Apple or Android app stores.
“All a customer needs to do is find a parking space, open the app and buy a digital ‘ticket’ entering that car park’s specific code which can be found on signage around the site.
“By doing this they will not need to stand in a queue at a parking meter, have no need to touch the machine and can easily top up ticket if they decide to stay longer.”
The Mi-Permit system is available in most of the car parks owned by Allerdale Borough Council, and a full list can be found at www.allerdale.gov.uk/en/parking/parking-charges-and-ways-pay/
