Plans to convert two of Douglas’s main car parks into ’ticketless’ operations have been put on hold.

Douglas Council announced last month its plan to introduce automatic number plate recognition to the car parks at Shaw’s Brow and the Bottleneck.

Work to upgrade the car parks was due to begin on Monday this week, but has been delayed.

A town hall spokesman said the council had been told by the supplier of the new system that the subcontractor, who was due to start installation work this week, will now not be able to begin until October 16.

’The delay, which is completely outside the council’s controwill mean the current pay-on-foot system will remain in place for two more weeks before the car parks are transferred to the new system, which comes into operation on October 25 in the Bottleneck car park and November 1 in Shaw’s Brow,’ said a spokesman.

The ticketless system aims to bring in more ways to pay.

As well as using cash and cards, customers will be able to pay through the Glide parking app on Android and IOS devices, or by setting up a credit account.

Pre-payment card holders will be able to transfer credit to the new system.

The council has confirmed the parking rates will be unchanged.

The new system recognises the user’s registration number, and customers will need to set up a credit account.