EALING’S parking permit system will move into the digital age from April 6 as the council moves away from paper permits towards electronic, or virtual, ones.

The borough will no longer be issuing paper permits.

Instead, in the same way as for vehicle tax, permits will be live on the council’s system once the application has been processed and payment received.

The electronic permit will be linked to the car’s registration and civil enforcement officers will be able to check valid permits using handheld electronic devices.

Residents will no longer need to wait for paper permits to arrive in the post.

The borough will also stop issuing paper visitor vouchers.

Instead, all visitor parking will have to be purchased using the RingGo telephone service.

This will mean that, once registered, residents will be able to buy visitor parking instantly, without any form-filling or risk of vouchers going missing in the post.

The electronic vouchers will also remove the risk of making a mistake when using scratch cards, which can lead to a penalty charge.