Drivers will now have to pay to park in Mid Sussex council car parks on Sundays, bank holidays and in the evening.
The new charges in Mid Sussex District Council’s car parks were agreed by its cabinet on Monday. Members also agreed to introduce a resident permit scheme in East Grinstead.
From January 2025, parking charges will be extended to 8pm rather than the current 6pm in all town centre car parks. A day tariff of £1 will be charged on Sundays and Bank Holidays.
And, following feedback from residents living in the East Grinstead controlled parking zone, optional overnight permits will be introduced to allow them to park in the Queensway car park from 5pm to 9am.
The permit will cost £6 per month, £15 per quarter or £54 per year.
Chris Hobbs, cabinet member for leisure and customer services, said: “No one likes to increase charges, but increasing charges is necessary.
“Charges implemented as part of the council’s budget earlier this year have not impacted on the number of visitors to our council car parks.
“Visitor numbers are up, which shows clearly what we already knew – that the price of a car park is not the only factor in why residents choose to
park in our towns.”
The changes form part of an amendment to the council’s parking strategy and action plan 2020-2030.
The strategy, adopted in December 2020, aims to provide direction for the management of and investment in car parking provision.
A feasibility study on providing additional capacity at the Queensway car park is being carried out and is due to report in early 2025.
A consultation into the changes attracted 282 responses, almost half of which were from East Grinstead residents.
Gary Marsh (Con, Ardingly, Balcombe & Turners Hill) said the permit scheme would be “very welcome to the people of East Grinstead”.
I live in Queens Road and sometimes have visitors who stay overnight and park in Queensway Car Park. It would be a good idea if you issued one night permits for visitors who need somewhere to park, that a resident could buy in advance. It would not be viable to buy a monthly, quarterly or annual permit for the occasional visitor.
(My daughter has a book of tickets she can give to workmen etc who have to park in her road , either all day tickets, or 2 hourly ones. )