Mid Sussex parking charges to rise for first time in a decade
It'll add up to between 80p and £1.50 more per ticket
Last updated 22nd Nov 2021
Parking charges in Mid Sussex are to go up for the first time in ten years in council-owned car parks.
Recommendations agreed by the district council’s cabinet last week will see 25 per cent added to current tariffs from early next year at all long and short stay town centre pay and display car parks.
This will add up to between 20p and £1.50 more per ticket, depending on how long the driver parks.
Parking for up to an hour will cost £1 rather than 80p, while parking for more than four hours in a short stay car park will cost £7.50 rather than £6.
An annual review of charges from now on was also recommended.
Deputy leader Judy Llewellyn-Burke said: “We are a financially independent council.
“Over the years, when we have not increased our parking tariffs, we have continued to improve our car parks.
“We’ve resurfaced them, maintained them, put in new machines where necessary and kept up with contemporary advances in the form of the apps – we use the MiPermit app – and we’ve done all that without increasing the tariff of our car parking charges.
“Unfortunate as it is, the financial world is not the same as it was and we’re not getting the income that we were – so we need to put up the car parking charges.”
The cabinet also recommended that the council introduce flexible three, five and six-day season tickets, in line with its Parking Strategy 2020-2030 action plan.
The three-day tickets would only be available on a monthly basis – at a cost of £45 – allowing the user to park for a total of 12 days during the month.
The five-day and six-day tickets would be available annually, quarterly or monthly, for use Monday to Friday and Monday to Saturday respectively.
The recommendation will be put to a meeting of the full council next month.
Stephen Hillier, cabinet member for economic growth, said: “We know that a lot of the people working in the town centres who use the season tickets, their ways of working have changed.
“So it’s really important that we support our town centres by changing our season ticket arrangements accordingly.”