Car parks on Duncombe Drive and Hockliffe Street are where the new hi-tech Pay and Display machines can be found. And according to South Beds District Council's parking contractor Vinci park, they are cheaper, more reliable and help keep the cost of the car parks down.

Most of the old, mains powered machines were installed in 1994 and provided excellent service for much longer than expected.

Modern technology now means the new machines require very little power and can be installed almost anywhere, without the need to dig trenches and run power cables.

Another environmentally friendly feature is that the new machines issue tickets on plain paper.

Many motorists did not use the sticker part of the old ticket to fix it to their windscreen so this was wasted.

All car park users now need to display their ticket clearly on their dashboard and make sure that is does not blow over when they close the door.

Chairman of the council, Cllr Pat Hamill, was on hand to inspect the first of the new machines at Ashton Square in Dunstable and said: "The introduction of the new equipment and the passing on of savings to our customers is part of our ambition to be a well managed council and I'm sure will prove very popular with residents."