Council reminds people of changes to parking charges from 1 September

Wiltshire Council is reminding people that some changes to car parking charges in the county begin from Thursday 1 September.

The new charges that begin from 1 September are an extra 10p per hour per tariff added to all car parking charges in Wiltshire Council car parks; an inflationary increase to car park season tickets; the introduction of charges for Blue Badge holders in all council car parks; and the introduction of charging at Castle Combe car park. However, the charging at Castle Combe car park will begin in the middle of the month as there has been a delay in sourcing the ticket machines.

The changes were agreed by the council in February, as part of the budget-making process for the financial year 2022/23 and were subject to public consultation through the Traffic Regulation Order process.

Cllr Richard Clewer, Leader of Wiltshire Council, said: The council agreed these changes following careful consideration of comments received through the statutory consultation exercise.

Increasing parking charges is always a difficult decision, but we have not increased them in four years and have no intention of doing so for the next four years.

The new charges will better reflect current inflation levels and rising operational costs, and also follow the strategy set out in our Local Transport Plan.

We recognise that it may take some time for people to be aware of these changes, particularly Blue Badge holders, and as such our Civil Enforcement Officers will be taking a reasonable and sensible approach to enforcement during the first few weeks.

To help remind people of the changes, signage will be installed in Wiltshire Council car parks.

To find out more about parking charges and Wiltshire car parks, people should go to: www.wiltshire.gov.uk/parking.