Parking meters are rapidly being replaced with apps, excluding less internet-savvy elderly, the country’s largest pensioners’ organsation said on Monday.

“We are not against innovation but it mustn’t exclude the elderly,” Leo Bisschops, chairman of Senioren Brabant-Zeeland, which has 120,000 members, said.

According to Bisschops, the speed with which the meters are being removed from city streets is leaving some elderly drivers behind.  “Most elderly drivers know how to handle a parking app but our members have an average age of 77 and not all of them are always that flexible,” he told the AD.

The number of cash-operated meters is rapidly falling in favour of the cheaper, maintenance-free app, the paper said. In Oss, in Brabant, a third of the 97 meters has gone, while Roosendaal now has some 34 instead of 73.

On the Wadden island of Texel broken down meters are no longer repaired. Utrecht, Amsterdam and Amstelveen have already done away with hundreds of meters.

Only Den Bosch went against the trend and has added 50 meters to the existing stock in new paid parking areas, the paper said.

The parking apps add to the list of digital obstacles for the elderly, who have also seen the number of cash machines and local banks disappear, Bisschops said. “So our advice is to include the elderly, don’t rush new developments and make sure people know what is happening,” he said.