Cheshire East is not forcing people to do anything they don't want to by introducing cashless parking payments, the council's highways boss said.

Cllr Mark Goldsmith (Wilmslow, Ind) was responding to questions from Macclesfield businessman Richard Slater during Wednesday's (February 26) meeting of the full council.

Mr Slater asked whether the council had assessed the potential damage to businesses in the town by making parking payments cashless.

And he asked: "What has been the reduction in the car parking revenue since cash payments were removed?"

He also raised safety concerns that vulnerable people paying by card or phone at machines were more likely to fall victim to scams or thefts.

Cllr Goldsmith replied: "Cashless payments were introduced in 2007, only 12 per cent of all transactions are now in cash.

"The consumers are voting with their feet.

"We are not forcing people to do anything they don't want, nothing they don't already do when they go and visit retailers.

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"All we are doing is reflecting what is happening in society."

He said a full impact equalities assessment had been done to ensure nobody suffers from this.

"Anybody who has a blue badge doesn't pay to use our car parks anyway so they are not affected," he said.

With regard to safety, Cllr Goldsmith said: "I see no reason to differ between somebody getting money out of their purse or wallet to getting a card out.

"They also have the ability to pay remotely by the smartphone and the Ringo app, which they can do from the safety of their own car if they feel vulnerable or threatened to visit a machine."

Regarding income from parking, Cllr Goldsmith said: "We are taking more money after this policy decision than we were beforehand."