THE money saved from moving to a virtual visitor parking permit system could go towards saving rural buses, Wiltshire Council’s transport chief has suggested.

Cabinet member for transport Philip Whitehead made the claims during a Salisbury Area Board meeting on Thursday when he faced public calls to scrap the unpopular policy.

Previously, people living in the city centre were able to buy scratchcards for visitors, but now Wiltshire Council has moved to an electronic system.

This means phoning or using the MiPermit website to pay for a visitor parking ticket.

Residents have claimed that it could leave the elderly becoming isolated as they fail to grapple with the changes.

But facing his critics Cllr Whitehead dismissed the concerns, saying running the old system alongside the new one would fail to save any cash.

He said phoning the MiPermit number was easier and quicker for many people than the old paper system.

The council is hoping to save £30,000 to £50,000 a year with the change and Cllr Whitehead cited a recent council consultation in which 80 per cent of people backed alternative ways of saving money so bus subsidies could be saved.

“There is only one budget in Wiltshire, I have to run both car parking and buses, if I don’t save £50,000 here then I have to save it somewhere else,” he said. “I understand any change causes concern and upset. That is why we made sure we had a telephone answer system. In order to get the permit you can use the telephone.

“In terms of running two systems, you don’t save any money. I hate to talk about money but if I ran two systems I would not save a penny.

“For lots of people this helps them because they can do it all on the telephone, which by the way was invented in 1876 and is not exactly new technology.”

It comes as Cllr Whitehead also confirmed that some cashless car parks could be trialled within the next 12 months. Salt Lane car park was due to be part of the trial but it was pulled due to an unforeseen cost with the text messaging service which Wiltshire Council hope will be resolved soon.

All the places in the cashless trial will be within 50 metres or so of a larger car park. Cllr Whitehead said across Wiltshire £500,000 is spent collecting cash, and going cashless in some smaller car parks could save up to £150,000 a year.