Conkers for all!

Perhaps the most unusual car parking scheme ever has been launched in Leeds and Manchester, allowing motorists to pay for their parking charges using conkers.

The scheme – which is running in three city centre car parks located in the cities, started on Monday and has already been proving popular with drivers. So far, 1,500 conkers have been received, which are worth around £300 in parking charges.

The idea is that motorists collect the conkers – which are ‘valued’ at 20 pence each – and exchange them for parking at the selected car parks up to a value of £10.

Town Centre Car Parks (TCCP) confirmed to the BBC that the environmentally-friendly scheme was thought up in an attempt to offset some of the emissions released by motorists. All conkers will be donated to Hetchell Wood Nature Reserve in Leeds during the scheme.

Ben Ziff from TCCP, told the news source: “I was looking at our figures on what we have taken on conkers and it seems to be quite high, a lot more than we were expecting. Initially we were only going to run it for a week, but we’re now definitely planning on extending the scheme.”

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s Jonathan Leadley, said: “This fantastic, but slightly bonkers idea will raise the profile of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s wonderful woodlands and hopefully raise a bit of cash to help us look after them.”