Parking restrictions are now back in force across all blue zones in Benidorm – reinstated on Friday July 1.

Some roads – including Calle Gerona, Calle Cuenca and Calle Lepanto had them temporarily suspended over the low season, causing slight confusion as the main Avd Mediterraneo was still in force. A thousand blue spaces which were free now require a ticket - only the white bays are free.

But the new touch screen machines have come under a lot of criticism from users – in main that the sun reflects off the screens making it extremely difficult to follow.

One of the main differences with the new style machines is that you need to enter your car registration number – so if you have a rental car make a note of the number... infact, I know many that don't know their own car registration number (me included).

A quick guide is as follows: Press the white start button and on the touch screen press option 1. You can change the language option at this point. Key in your car registration number followed by the green tick. You then have option 1 or 2. For normal pay & display press 1 – if you have a blue exemption badge press 2 and parking is free for up to 2 hours. Next feed your money into the metre - minimum is 30 minutes costing 25cents and maximum is 2 hours, costing 1 euro. The machine does not give any change back but does take credit car payments. Charges apply between 9:00am – 2pm then again from 4:00pm and 9:00pm. Print your ticket and display on dashboard.

If your car is unfortunately towed away when parked in Benidorm, it is worth noting that the pound has moved. It is now located next to the L'Illa Municipal Sport Centre - almost opposite the bus station on the top end of Avd Europa. The only good thing - if there can be after having your car towed, is that they now accept card payments - previously you had to pay in cash and there aren't many people that would walk around with a spare €140 in their wallets. Remember, if you have a rental car and get a ticket, which you do not pay then you will end up being charged an aditional administration fee by the hire company on top of the original fine. There is a facility to cancel a fine if your pay & display has gone over the expiry time for only a couple of euros.