ST HELENS Council is urging people to report incidents of vandalism and theft from a town centre parking ticket machine.

The Star had been made aware of issues surrounding a Pay and Display machine on Parade Street, which has been vandalised with people using force to extract money from it.

St Helens Council say they have had reports of vandalism and are aware of problems with the machine not giving change to users buying tickets, with engineers set to shortly fix it.

The local authority added that the machine is emptied twice a week and that they are looking into altering CCTV coverage to take in the spot where the machine is.

A St Helens Council spokesman said: "The council has received reports of vandalism to the Pay and Display machines on Parade Street.

"Parking services will be working closely with colleagues in the council's CCTV suite to monitor the situation with the hope of catching the perpetrators in the act.

"We encourage residents and nearby town centre workers to report any such acts to the police via the non-emergency 101 number."

Merseyside Police says it has not yet received any reports of thefts from the machine.