ALL of Salisbury’s parking ticket machines will accept the new £1 coins by the time the old coins go out of circulation in three weeks, the council has promised.

The new 12-sided coins were introduced at the end of March but it was more than four months before any of the city’s parking machines could accept them.

Wiltshire Council says it replaced 10 machines in Salisbury in August, and still has 34 left to install.

Elsewhere in the county, 85 machines were replaced before the new coins were introduced.

The old coins will no longer be legal tender from October 15, three-and-a-half weeks from today.

The delay in upgrading the machines prompted complaints from local motorists and visitors to the city when tourism was at its summer peak.

Before the new £1 coins came in, the council’s corporate director Carlton Brand said there would be “a smooth transition for customers”.

The council congratulated itself for having “made changes in readiness for the new 12-sided pound coin”.

It said it had spent £25,000 updating 85 parking machines across the county, while some less-used machines had been scrapped to save money.

A Wiltshire Council spokesperson said: “The remaining new parking machines will be installed in Salisbury from next week, after the first batch were installed in August.

“This work will mean 44 new machines in Salisbury, and will be complete before the old pound coin ceases to be legal tender on 15 October.”

Labour councillor John Walsh said: “It is beginning to look as if the council will fail to deliver the remaining 34 machines in time, despite high-level promises.

“I am furious that yet again it appears our council will let down the businesses and residents of Salisbury.

“I hope they prove me wrong.”