Car park changes in Hinckley announced

From 1 July 2018 Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council will be implementing a range of changes after commissioning an independent Hinckley car parks study.

Plans aim to increase the availability of short stay parking. These include introducing one and two-hour tariffs on all long-stay car parks, increasing charges for longer stays in short-stay car parks, and making Trinity Lane East car park short stay only.

The study revealed that, while there were plenty of car parks, individual sites can become very busy. There is also often a shortfall of short-stay parking on Saturdays.

Short stay car parks will see fees rise from 50 pence for up to an hour to 60 pence, while over four hours will increase from £4.80 to £6. New car park charges will become effective from Sunday 1 July 2018.

On long stay car parks parking for up to five hours will see an increase from £1.30 to £1.60, while those staying for over five hours will see a 10 pence rise. Charges for parking permits on these car parks are frozen.

Meanwhile, parking in the popular town centre Church Walk and St Mary’s car parks will  be available for a maximum of three hours (including the blue badge holders bays) to ensure spaces are available for shoppers throughout the day.

New payment machines (chip and pin and/or contactless and cash) will also be phased in as pay and display machines are replaced.

Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council’s Executive Member for Towns, Councillor Miriam Surtees said:

Over the past few years we have been working with Hinckley BID and the Chamber of Trade to seek to improve the parking offer in Hinckley. 

We hope that the introduction of more short stay car parking and new cash and card payment machines will help residents to choose to come into Hinckley town centre for both shopping and leisure activities, supporting local businesses and events. There has been no increase in parking charges for many years and we have tried to keep the increase as low as possible.  While charges have been frozen for eight years, the decision to increase them was not made lightly by the Borough Council and we remain committed to regularly reviewing and refreshing  parking strategies to meet the needs of residents.