Increases in car parking fees are being implemented on 30 June 2025 for resident permits and North Herts Council operated car parks in Baldock, Hitchin, Letchworth Garden City, Royston and Knebworth.
Reasons for increase in charges
The council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) sets a budget assumption that parking fees and charges should increase annually by 2%. It makes clear that parking charge levels within car parks are mainly set to manage demand and are reflective of the cost of alternative parking locations. Car parking fees were last increased in 2023.
Car parking fee increases over the last few years have been implemented later in the financial year as a result of the pandemic and giving local businesses more time to recover from the pandemic and to address wider economic pressures. In order to bring the increases back in line with the council’s budget setting process for the start of the financial year, it was agreed in the MTFS for 2025/26 to increase parking tariffs by 4% to cover the 2024/25 and 2025/26 financial years.
We have worked hard to keep car parking fee increases to a minimum and have delayed increasing this year’s changes from 1 April to enable users to familiarise themselves with the new ‘check-in, check-out’ machines recently installed across council operated car parks.
Permit fees within Resident Parking Zones have not been increased since 2013 and will increase by 2% to align with other inflationary costs associated with operating the parking enforcement service and the ongoing maintenance costs associated with respective on-street regulations, i.e. refreshing road markings and replacing signs.
Details of changes
Off-street car parks
- All council-operated car parks will increase by 10p per hour including the flat rate tariff after 3pm in Hitchin.
- A flat rate charge is also being introduced for anyone parking between the hours of 3pm and 6pm in Letchworth council-operated car parks. This will be £1.10 in the Garden Square Multi-storey and Hillshott car parks and £1.50 in the Town Hall car park.
- ‘Free after 3’ parking will continue in Royston car parks due to ongoing subsidy contributions from both Royston BID and Royston Town Council.
- Parking for the 30 minutes tariff in St. Martins car park in Knebworth will be free due to contributions from Knebworth Parish Council.
On-street parking bays in Royston town centre
- The 1hr charge in Market Hill will increase to 90p to bring the 1hr tariff in line with the Royston off-street car parks and the 2hr charge will increase by 10p
- The free after 3pm parking will remain, also being subsidised by contributions from both Royston BID and Royston Town Council.
On-street resident permit parking zones
- The 6-month resident, business and visitor permits will increase by £1, from £42 to £43
- The 12-month resident, business and visitor permits will increase by £2, from £84 to £86.
- Visitor ticket books will increase by 50p, from £12 to £12.50.
Publication of new tariffs
The following Notices of Variation have been published in the local newspapers which lists the new car parking tariffs and resident permit increases.
These Notices of Variation relate to the Traffic Regulation Orders published on the parking orders and reviews page.