Parking charges to increase across Chelmsford

Charges at car parks including Townfield Street are set to rise

Parking charges are due to increase across Essex's county town from April.

Fees will increase by 50p for all stays above two hours, under proposals made by Chelmsford City Council.

The changes are expected to increase income from parking from a budgeted £5.2m in 2021-22 to £6.7m in 2022-23.

The council is predicting parking income will be around 82% of pre-Covid levels in 2022-23 and will not return fully due to permanent changes in behaviour by motorists.

This includes more people working from home and shopping online.

However, the price of parking for up to two hours will remain the same.

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Long stay car park charges would also increase to make up for current usage trends, the authority said.

For example in station car parks, such as Townfield Street, the proposal is to increase the all-day tariff from £8.50 to £9.00.

Townfield Street, Glebe Road and Fairfield Road car parks will also be changed from long-stay to mixed-stay to help support nearby businesses, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reports.

The council suspended car park charge increases last year to help business during Covid restrictions.

Liberal Democrat council leader Stephen Robinson said: "This year we are putting up car park charges but not all of them. The two-hour charges stay the same because that is the most common fee people pay.

"We are making some increases which reflect usage patterns and car park charges are always an important part of balancing our budget so we can invest in core services like bin collections."