This in from the council, in their own words. Ed
A woman from Edinburgh got a nice surprise while visiting the Isle of Wight during a recent holiday here.
Donna Ridland, who was visiting the Isle of Wight with her fiance, was called to tell her that she had won a new Samsung Galaxy smartphone as part of a competition run in partnership by PayByPhone and the Isle of Wight Council.
The competition
A competition was held between 24 June and 24 July where every time someone paid for parking in a council car park or on-street bay using PayByPhone, they were given an entry into the competition to win the phone.
Donna said:
“We decided to visit the Isle of Wight because we wanted to stay in the UK for our summer holiday, and visiting an island destination gave us a great sense of adventure. My fiance Matt also had fond memories as a child coming here and said we should go.
“I was a bit worried at first when I got the call from the council as I thought I had been given a ticket! But this soon turned to surprise and excitement when I was told I’d won a new phone!
“We loved our holiday to the Isle of Wight and will look to come again. It is a very special place with amazing scenery and is so different to Scotland’s landscape. We used the PayByPhone facility as it is so easy to use – I use it regularly as very often I do not have coins on me!”
Councillor Jon Gilbey, the council’s cabinet member responsible for highways said:
“I am very pleased Donna had such a wonderful time on the Isle of Wight, and to win the smartphone was obviously a welcome surprise.
“Any motorist will no doubt have gone to pay for parking before and realised they do not have the correct change, which is a common gripe. This is why the PayByPhone option is so important these days, especially on a tourism Island and the system is clearly popular with tens of thousands of transactions already since January this year.”
Robin Bevan, Commercial CEO at PayByPhone said,
“It is very important to us that customers find our service easy and convenient to use so we are delighted that Donna had such a good experience and can now enjoy using her new smartphone.”
All of the council’s car parks and parking bays allow motorists to pay for parking using the PayByPhone system, with each town also featuring at least one parking meter which accepts debit or credit cards as well.
