SMART parking systems with varying charges should be brought into Brighton and Hove as soon as possible, a councillor has claimed.

Conservative councillor Andrew Wealls wants the city authority to explore the US-based system as part of a major overhaul of the city’s parking meters.

The member for Central Hove was speaking as councillors agreed to plans to buy 330 new card-only pay and display machines and upgrade a further 320 existing coin machines to accept card.

Council leader Warren Morgan said that the council was exploring options for smart parking as part of its seafront development project but that the benefits might not be seen for another five or ten years.

Fellow Conservative councillor Tony Janio also called for more flexibility in the system and called for card-friendly machines which could charge by the minute.

Under the proposals agreed at last week’s policy, resources and growth committee, the council will spend £1.5 million on bringing hundreds more pay-by-card meters.

The move is designed to save around £1 million in the potential cost of upgrading coin-operated machines to accept the new 12-sided £1 coin coming in next year.

Around 150 meters in the city will be adopted to accept the new £1 coin and card payments.

The changes mean that less than one in five of the city’s 800 parking meters will accept coins although drivers will still be able to pay in cash at any of the city’s 150 PayPoint outlets by quoting the location code for where they parked.

The changes come just months after the council completed the removal of 580 parking meters from the city streets in January.

Cllr Wealls called on the council to use overhaul as an opportunity to introduce technology-led schemes from across the Atlantic.

He said: “If we are changing our parking infrastructure in the city it might be an opportunity in certain parts of the city to look at dynamic parking.

“There is plenty of research from San Francisco and Los Angeles shows that it reduces cruising around for parking spaces and reduces air pollution.

“With dynamic parking there is the flexibility to vary tariffs for certain circumstances, you can change tariffs over short periods depending on demand.

"Some of the systems have sensors in them so you can have an app which tells you where there are free car parking spaces.

"We could learn lessons from San Francisco and LA when we spend money to roll out this system.”