RingGo launches Living Machines

RingGo, the UK’s leading cashless parking provider, today unveils its latest development in support of Touch Free Parking – RingGo Living Machines. These unique solutions help local authorities and private operators encourage users to adopt touch free payment solutions by turning Pay & Display machines into natural decorative features that will enhance and improve the local High Street.

The launch comes on the back of responses from RingGo’s customer base to an email in the first week of May which highlighted that many Councils and private operators wished to reduce their dependence on machines, but felt there might be resistance from local communities for doing so.

By removing most, or many, machines whilst transforming some into Living Machines, Councils can focus on the positive benefits of removal, including lower carbon footprint from fewer vehicle journeys, revenue savings that can be reinvested into the local area, and safer parking via RingGo touch free payments too.

As well as providing a focal point for communications, RingGo’s Living Machines help improve air quality, with a range of plants to match local Council objectives. Planting selections can be chosen to reduce air pollution, maximise biodiversity or enhance the local High Street by providing colour through natural flowers.

The size and placement of living machines is especially good for improving localised air quality and urban biodiversity as part of broader street greening schemes, including trees, and container planting. The solution uses the existing machine electricity supply, whether mains or solar-powered, to operate and charge an integrated irrigation controller which keeps the plants hydrated. This means displays need minimal care, requiring only intermittent horticultural checks and a top up of water about once a week.

Angus Cunningham, Managing Director of Scotscape says “Living Machines offer another means of bringing plants into existing urban infrastructure, supporting urban greening, local air quality initiatives, and biodiversity corridors”

Peter O’Driscoll, Managing Director for RingGo says, “The expense of servicing machines simply isn’t sustainable when cash is such a rare commodity and likely to become even more so following Covid 19 . People are understandably reluctant to touch shared keypads of both cash, and contactless, machines.

“Like BT’s phone boxes, many of which now serve as defibrillator or promotional sites, we hope our Living Machines become popular for machine re-use – helping the local environment, improving air quality, adding beauty, and encouraging all forms of life back into the UK’s high streets.”