PetrolPrices recently wondered, as we’ve looked at the prices across the country for fuel many times, what the difference in cost across the country was like for parking. We’ve written about parking before and many people have mentioned to us the cost of parking and how ridiculous it can be. With this in mind, we set out to document the maximum cost of parking per hour of all council owned car parks and on-street parking across England.
Motorists are continually seen as the target for local authorities and Government that need propping up; a number of councils are facing increasing cuts to their budgets, particularly Social Care, and as recently as March, Northampton County Council effectively stated they were bankrupt, and other councils are close to following them. The Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) has stated that as many as half of the local councils could raise their parking charges in the next few months, by as much as 45%, and Sunday charges haven’t been ruled out.
London problems
The City of London has some of the highest property prices in Europe per metre2, analysts tell us that space is a commodity, and as such, should be paid for at the market rate to make use of it. Councils tell us that it is part of the congestion charge effect, and they’re raising prices to combat the levels of air pollution created by cars. Motorists will tell you that finding a space in London isn’t easy, and trying to avoid paying additional charges after Congestion and T-Charge means further driving, more congestion and more pollution.
Up until 2004, there were strict requirements for parking space provisions for any new build in London, meaning that the city could only grow or develop as the space warranted; no parking provision, no building. Once those regulations were abolished, the average parking space ratio for residential housing blocks fell from 1.1 spaces to 0.6, thereby putting a greater emphasis and strain on the on-street and council owned parking facilities.
If the analysts are correct, and we should pay market value for on-street space, then we’re paying for exactly that – the space. If the space is occupied, it can’t be used, so why do certain vehicles have to pay up to 50% more for the space, whilst others get it free? (Westminster introduced a ‘D-Charge’ in which pre-2015 diesel vehicles pay a flat 50% extra). A diesel car is as pollution-free as the most modern and cleanest of the ULE vehicles when they’re parked.
£8 per hour for diesels
The London Borough of Islington charges a standard rate of £6 per hour for parking, although diesel drivers face a further surcharge of £2 per hour, regardless of how modern the diesel is. Without the diesel surcharge, the City of Westminster tops the list with a fee of £7.26 per hour.
Compare that to the district of Blaby in Leicestershire, parking charges are a maximum of £0.15 per hour, or the thirty plus areas that still offer free parking. At least 50 of the UK councils make zero profit from parking charges, some even run at a loss to help support trade and businesses in the local area.
The top 10 most expensive places were:
- Islington – £6 + £2 diesel charge
- Westminster – £7.26
- Camden – £5.55
- Kensington and Chelsea – £4.90
- Tower Hamlets – £4.60
- Oxford – £4.50
- Nottingham – £4.40
- Thanet – £4.00
- St Edmundsbury – £4.00
- Lambeth – £4.00
Data shows the maximum cost per hour for either on-street or off-street parking in a council charged area. This data does not take in private car parks in any town.
It is also worth noting that the Brighton and Hove also charged a maximum of £4 an hour.
Cheaper for green vehicles
A number of cities have recently introduced free parking for the drivers of green vehicles, and some car park operators are looking to slash fees by 20% for the same, and yet given that an electric or hybrid vehicle has the same footprint, weight and capacity to occupy a parking space as a regular vehicle, and therefore the same ‘wear & tear’ properties, surely they should be paying the same? Electric vehicles by their very nature are expensive, whilst they now may be a viable alternative for the fossil-fuelled vehicles, that’s only the case if the consumer can afford to take that choice; penalising drivers for not being able to afford a newer and more expensive car is unjust.
Forcing the motorist from the city centres will have further impact; high street shopping is already on the decline – a 2.2% drop in September 2017 for the year, although December 2017 saw that figure rise to 3.5%, analysts tell us that the drop is due to internet shopping, yet out-of-town retail parks continue to enjoy year on year growth. Could high parking charges and added congestion charges, T-Charges, ULEZs be having an impact on the high street?
Motorists targeted as cash cows
Could these staggeringly high parking charges be part of a ‘make hay whilst the sun shines’ strategy by the local authorities? With experts predicting that the high street will evolve into a place of leisure with bars, clubs, restaurants etc, the traffic and congestion problem (and therefore, the pollution problem) will lessen.
Treating the motorist as a simple but effective means to make short-term money is a near-sighted policy and will only result in a catch-22 situation; towns will lose footfall, leading to loss of business, reduced revenue stream for any local authority (rents, rates and additional spend), increased expenditure on public transport infrastructure, and a need to find the lost revenue from other avenues – the ‘car’ will be a no-go zone thanks to being effectively forced off the road. And yet still they continue to add stealth taxes on every aspect of car ownership.
As one of the biggest resources to help the motorist, PetrolPrices would like to see an investigation into the policy decisions made regarding parking charges and pricing, with particular respect to geographic variations, and justifiable amounts; why does providing a single parking space in London cost 50 times more than elsewhere in the country? Particularly when it’s on-street parking rather than a dedicated facility.
What’s the parking cost like near you? How do you overcome the cost of parking? Let us know below
Well, if “Motorists are continually seen as the target for local authorities” through the raising of parking charges, the only people to blame are Cameron and Osborne. They took millions from local authorities and simultaneously stopped them from raising Council Tax. So how can they make up the shortfall in revenue? You guessed it!!
amd yet, the most expensive parking is Corbyn’s Constituency……
Corbyn doesn’t set Parking charges.
As I replied to you elsewhere:
Are you suggesting that Corbyn couldn’t have taken up the cause, or influenced the LA if he’d wanted to? C’mon, he’s too busy trying to woo the younger generation and buff-up his image in the media. (and he needs to spend all the time he has doing that!)
Our local council have put the charge up for all, but for there workers parking is free. I wonder why
The same in Sevenoaks. Except after lots of adverse comments they now let people park in their employee car par for free at the weekends.
Not surprising that Islington, (Corbyn’s Constituency) comes out the highest.
Just remind me of his catchphrase, oh yeah, ‘for the many, not the few’
Corbyn doesn’t run the local authority.
Are you suggesting that Corbyn couldn’t have taken up the cause, or influenced the LA if he’d wanted to? C’mon, he’s too busy trying to woo the younger generation and buff-up his image in the media. (and he needs to spend all the time he has doing that!)
Things always cost more in the nasty sprawl of London. The cost of running the place has increased exponentially as its size has increased. I thank the Heavens above that I can find all that I need elsewhere and never need to enter our “rip-off capital”.
The most expensive places to park at least short term, must be the airports! Anyone been to Heathrow or Southampton Airport recently?
What can be done to prevent this I wonder?
Even to drop someone off at Stansted costs £2, total rip-off!
EASY ANSWER-THERE IS A CAR PARK THERE WITH FREE DROP OFF TIME WITH A FREQUENT SHUTTLE BUS TO THE TERMINAL- IN FACT IF YOU GO WITH WITH THEM ON THE BUS AND COME BACK AND OVERSTAY YOUR TIME SLIGHTLY THERE IS ONLY A MINIMAL EXTRA CHARGE.
BEST BET LOOK UP PARKING CHARGES ON LINE BEFORE YOU GO!
Manchester is now £3.00 and thats i you are in a taxi to
£2.00 for 15 minutes dropping off at Doncaster Robin Hood airport this morning. Robin Hood – takes from the rich to give to the ….. event richer!
I overcome the cost of parking and the aggravation of finding a parking space by using public transport in London. If anyone moans about its reliability I point out that in the rest of the country there is so little in certain places (eg Cornwall) they should think themselves lucky.
Don’t go into town. Do all my shopping online!!!
I was charged £2.90 for parking for 32 minutes in Hinchingbrooke Hospital, Huntingdon. The first 30 minutes is free, then £2.90 for up to 3 hours.
So why weren’t you more careful to make sure you did not go over the 30 minutes…
When was the last time your Hospital Apointment was within fifteen minutes of the set time.
Your lucky £3,30 per hour at local hospital.
Motorists are being used as a cash cow by local authorities because they can. This behaviour would not be tolerated in the USA, where car use is the norm.
Public transport outside of London is poor or non-existent – so you have to use the car, or not travel.
VED and fuel duty is the route by which roads are funded – additional charges dressed up as green levies should therefore be mandated against.
Bear in mind that towns in the USA have mainly developed since the car was invented. Most towns and villages in the UK existed many decades if not actually many centuries prior to the car, and thus alleyways, twittens, and other extremely narrow passageways are the norm. Parking is always going to be a problem here – especially since three or more cars per address is now not uncommon.
VED and fuel duty should be used to fund roads , I think you will find that the majority of revenue collected is used for other purposes.
On what do you base your statement regarding public transport outside of London ?
You have obviously never been very far.
Robert Gordon, doesn’t sound like you’ve been very far unless, maybe, in a chauffeured Limousine.
Chris Hunton is 100% correct, I’ve lived in East Anglia for many years and have been very far into Suffolk, why don’t you give it a go?
Public transport in Birmingham can be dire, stabbings, muggings, sexual assault, the list of crimes are endless, plus the never ending smell of cannabis from the top deck, and the noise from somebodies mobile at the sound of Concorde on take-off. I will only use them if forced, and I have an OAP bus pass. Our nickname for this is scum transport, as that is all that uses it outside of rush hour.
Gatwick Airport. £4 for thirty minutes!! Utter ripoff.
Manchester is £4 for SIX minutes.
But that’s not parking, it’s the drop off charge, you have the option to use the free drop off area with the shuttle bud for the final mile.
I live in Islington. My son has been diagnosed with asthma having just turned 4. Pollution levels here exceed yearly legal limits within days of the start of the year. This whole article is premised on the idea that parking costs are somehow proportional to land rents. This is a fallacy. Parking costs, congestion charging, t-charge is all about changing behaviour away from a polluting system. The claim that encouraging the use of cleaner vehicles punishes poorer vehicle owners doesn’t hold up in central London; the truth is that poorer people in central London don’t have cars because quite frankly they don’t need to. All amenities are easily accessible on foot or public transport. You’d be barmy to go to the “high street” in London in a car and that’s as it should be. A reduced provision of parking spaces, high parking charges, weighted further against the most polluting vehicles make perfect sense in London and other city centres as the aim is to have a low / no pollution foot and public transport based system. The money being produced from parking charges for motorists who cling to the harmful old system can be invested into clean busses, cycle routes, maintenance of the walkways, provision of clean vehicles and parking provision for the disabled who have to drive. So yes, you’re a cash cow. And you’ll be rightly milked until you change your ways and we make this city safe for our children.
Over 60% of air pollution in central London is from gas heating. Pollution from diesel cars is less than 5%.
James, go live outside of London then and give your son a better environment to live in.
In Wellingborough Northants we have a Mult-Storey car park adjoined to the town’s main shopping centre. The car park has NO parking charges. The town is also only 50 minutes by train from London and you can buy a decent 3 bed detached house for less than £200,000. Just 4 miles away is the Rushden Lakes Shopping Complex with all your big name stores + Free Parking. 3650 new homes are currently being built next to Wellingborough Railway Station by Bovis Homes. Why pay more elsewhere?
Is it true that the airports intend to charge £8 to drop off/collect passengers?
As the majority of councils control the cost of parking, how long will it take them to realise that these insane increases is only driving people away from city/town centres to the out of town retail parks generally with free parking or more realistic and fair pricing. This is now forcing town and city businesses to close down as a lack of customers is reflecting on their turnover and ability to survive, consequently, councils are also loosing revenue from business rates. The amount of business properties that are now empty, boarded up are ever increasing creating ghost towns with little or no desire to visit. When will these councils learn?
So true. Here in Exeter, the council have decided, in their infinite wisdom, that the way to solve the problem of pollution by vehicles is to put up the parking charges in city car parks. The one I used to use now charges £2 for 1 hour, £3 for 2 hours. The idea is apparently to encourage people to use public transport or park and ride. My local regular bus service has been discontinued by Stagecoach. With national papers highlighting the decline of High Streets, I cannot be the only one who will do more shopping online. This is effectively penalising people for shopping in the High Street.
Quite agree. My local authority in Wales has made parking in the centre extremely difficult in an effort to make residents use public transport. The problem being transport does not go where passengers need to go. Basically the system being operated to suit the Company rather than the convenience of the passengers.
I am one of the unlucky who is disabled and in a wheelchair the park and ride never seems to be able to get a chair on so i do not bother
Suggest you look at the local terms of carriage for the bus company, as they have an obligation to provide for disabled people whether partially mobile or not. Even raise it with the local media or council, failing that your MP.
I travel an hour to Sheffield’s Meadowhall rather than ten minutes to my local town centre, because the parking is free and they have a good selection of shops, restaurants and even a cinema at the very pleasant Meadowhall. Unlike the ‘almost-on-it’s-arse’ Freshney Place offering in Grimsby.
Here in sunny Weymouth a town centre car park costs £2/hour. Up the road in Dorchester it costs £1 for 2 hours. Why? Hit the beach visitors – the lifeblood of the town!
Anything to bleed the motorist.. I am disabled and the nearest bus stop is some 15 minutes walk which I find impossible. The actual distance to the centre is around 2 miles, but I little option other than taking the car on a NINE mile round trip to a park and ride facility, and then a bus for some 5 miles to get to the centre. Although a bit of a roundabout way and time consuming,, the charges for parking in the centre are from £3 an hour upwards, but the park and ride is £5 ALL DAY.
Parking for Blue badge holders is limited, and most spaces are gone by 8am. On street parking is a virtual NO NO as most streets in the centre are occupied by Bus lanes.
In Truro to meet family and as usual parking is at a premium so had to use car park. To my horror after 6 hours the ticket machine charged me £18.00 ! ! ! If this is not highway robbery I should like to know what is. I know Truro is a city but, enough is enough and it is about time there was a cap on these horrendous fees. By the way, I am disabled yet there were no disabled spaces. In Cornwall it is normal for any car park to charge for parking for disabled persons. Councils coffers must be bulging. Talk about fat cows ! I live in Cornwall.
The whole parking situation is becoming a joke as not only borough councils are guilty of cashing in on revenue gained by parking charges. Hospital charges are becoming a joke also in many £3+ per hour. Many hospitals that supply free parking bays for the disabled which in many cases are not sufficient as disabled people are more likely to have hospital appointments than able bodied people and in most cases have to use their cars to attend appointments are having to park in ordinary bays which many hospitals are now making them pay as their blue badges do not allow them to park free. When approaching the hospital about this matter the answer is normally that they have no control as the car parks are managed by private companies which brings me to the question ” who gets the revenue”. As a carer for someone that is disabled i see first hand what problems this presents to someone didabled. Lots of people will argue that the disabled get lots of help with their disability. I agree that they do but let them that scorn try living with a disability and see then what they have to say.
If town centres become primarily places of leisure how does that reduce congestion? People are not very likely to use public transport such as trains, trams, buses because they invariably stop running late at night. So, they revert to taxis which are a car just the same as my car except they are far more likely to be worn out and higher polluting.
My wife’s blue badge enables us to park for free in our local council (Mid-Sussex) area.
The key observation in the article: high street retailers have seen a decline in footfall; out of town retail parks continue to see growth!
That alone proves thst Councils that have parking charges (whether low or high)， are directly responsible for the desertification of high streets.
One also has to bear in mind it was the Tories， Eric Pickles in particular， who changed the law around 2011， that effectively gave councils the green light to hike parking charges， regardless of the cost of administration.
Why Blue Badge holders pay to park in carparks that charges them to park amazes me when they can park on double yellow line for 3 hours for free If they all pared on double yellow lines and caused congestion by doing so the council might realise the stupidity of charging Blue Badge holders just to make a few more £s week Blue Badge holders would find the could park nearer to where the want to be
We’re having to buy scratch cards 5hrs per card minimum £25 just to visit our son, Disgusting London cash cows for the motorists., car parking space £7000 he doesn’t drive.
Cheapest place must be Cromer in Norfolk where the Gypsies took over the car park and had to be evicted after the weekend of disruption they caused in the town. Free parking if you have a caravan due to the Government not allowing immediate action to the authorities.
It is the parking charges that stop me visiting my local High Streets I just drive to to a retail park or shopping centre with free parking so it is not shopping online in my case.
The deceit of politicians, at all levels of government, is breathtaking. They deliberately conflate the arguments of congestion and environment, and use them interchangeably, depending on what will raise most taxes.
Having driven around London as a minicab driver, I know the vast majority of traffic jams are caused by one of, or a combination of:
1. Bad traffic light management.
2. Road works.
3. Bus lanes ( narrowing the road available for rest of traffic).
4. Lorries / black cabs / buses stopped on side of road.
Overall environmental pollution is largely caused by animal agriculture, responsible for over 50% of greenhouse gases! All vehicles, including airplanes, lorries, buses etc, are responsible for less than 15% of greenhouse gases. If you isolate just cars, they are probably contributing to around 5% of greenhouse gases.
In London, buses and black cabs are the biggest polluters, especially for NO2 emissions. Yet the Mayor is penalising Private Hire Vehicles, but exempting black cabs! And diesel cars are being penalised for parking ( when they would not even emit anything when parked and empty!!), but black cabs and buses, who are on the go all day, belching out obnoxious NO2, are given exemptions!
Finally, what most people are ignorant of / or choose to ignore, every time car owners fill up at the forecourts, they are already paying over 150% taxes to the government! I consider this sufficient punishment, as well as a deterrant to minimise use of cars.
By contrast, meat and dairy products, responsible for over 50% of greenhouse gases, are rated 0% for VAT, and farmers are given subsidies for producing them!
Politicians are using people’s ignorance to slap taxes on motorists every which way they can.
Actually planes and boats, not agriculture
Using the reverse logic of your position opposing parking charge discounts for green vehicles, my Fiat 500 takes up less than half the space of a large car. It is what I can afford. Surely, as twice as many Fiat 500s fit into a car park than their bigger, and gas guzzling, cousins, I should get a discount on the parking charges?
We moved home two years ago and the fact that our chosen village had five services each way to our nearest town, Dorchester, influenced our choice of location. Within six month all rural and many other bus services were removed overnight. Our MP Oliver Letwyn, useless except as a toady, expense claimer and pizza runner did nothing. No option but to drive but at least like hundreds of others we can use Poundbury as a park and ride where the property developer Prince has allowed a frequent bus service to ferry folk to town. Poor residents coping with that.
in northwich we have had free parking for many years and this has attracted many shoppers from out of town, but the local council has redeveloped the town and built over the free parking. they have given a multistory parking of similar area but propose to charge for parking in the future. the new development is a problem that the available property is not being taken up. there is a brand new shopping center and it it is empty. No one has money for new openings when existing chains are having closures. it is depressing to see this and we do tend to avoid this area. it is in our benefit to attract more retail business and to charge for parking would have a detrimental effect on footfall.
we are lucky that we still have the old town and shops, and free parking but for how long and fear that the cost of this development will fall on local taxpayers.
free parking attracts more custom and charges have an opposite effect .To charge so much for essential parking deters people only if there is a choice.
Simple solution! I use a cycle to cover up to to a ten mile radius in Brighton for business, pleasure and shopping. Sometimes up to thirty miles. It beats congestion and keeps me fit and costs nothing apart from charging a pedelec cycle when having to carry heavy loads or in strong winds. Perhaps it has been ditching the car for most local needs that has kept me fit and able to cycle at seventy six
Nationwide there is an increase in charging for Disabled Drivers in on road and off road parking, making a mockery of the whole purpose of the blue badge. Certain places appear to be beyond capacity as every space is taken up. So the councils are also marking the roads to prevent legal parking with a blue badge on yellow lines. Some places are wide enough and there is NO viable reason to mark lines on the kerb, apart from forcing them to park in car parks. When will this big yellow taxi economy end?
£7 for 24 hours parking if longer then 3 hours. £3.50 for 3 hours. Parkpaedia is a good site and worth doing the research before a trip.
My main concern is parking charges at hospitals most appointments take between 2- 3 hrs they never run on time so it is very difficult to judge. Another thing is that there r not enough disable bays and if u park any where eles in the car park then ur blue badge is not valid and u have to pay . Hospitals car parks r way to expensive who is making the money is the NHS or the PRIVATE COMPANIES THAT RUN THEM .
Swadlincote South Derbyshire, all car parks FREE parking, if one council can do it why can’t all
In this society of internet purchasing and the loss of major retailers like Toys are Us and the loss of some of the most famous names in retailing Mothercare, House of Fraser, Marks & Spencer and more closures lined up for 2018.
It is pleasing to see that the local councils and their “advisers” are now contributing to this crisis by marking the roads with yellow stripes and charging a high premium for any car parks. What these “advisers” don’t realise is that they will also succumb to a loss of jobs as the main retailers go the independent will follow and then the only shops in the high street will be Charity Shops. There is no mention in our Council Tax bills of how much money has been reinvested into our infrastructure WHY NOT. It won’t be long before the council Offices will be struggling to maintain their plush offices due to the closures and then smaller offices will equal less jobs
A few years ago the government told us that the best way to save money was by buying diesel fuel it took over 20 years for the public and most companies to change over to this fuel due to incentives and the like. NOW we are told if you have a diesel car you will be punished by paying more for parking (50% surcharge) and buying fuel by at least 10p a litre more although oil has decreased in price.
Being a pensioner living in the countryside I can’t afford to change my car for a petrol one so I will be penalised for doing as the government wanted.