Worthing is to cut some of its short-term car parking charges to attract shoppers back to the town centre - but if you're staying for longer than two hours it'll go up.
Visitors to the town centre will pay less for the second hour of their stay at Worthing Borough Council’s three multi-storey car parks from March 28.
The council says the new tariffs are 'designed to support economic growth while raising enough funds to maintain and invest in the parking infrastructure for the future'.
As part of its annual multi-storey tariff review, fees for up to two hours’ parking Mondays to Saturdays in the Buckingham Road, Grafton and High Street car parks - which currently stands at £2.30 - will be reduced to £2, while the Sunday rate will remain unchanged at £2 for two hours.
Parking at the town’s three multi-storeys for the first hour on any day will stay at £1.
Cllr Kevin Jenkins, the Leader of Worthing Borough Council, said:
“Our high street shops have endured some incredibly tough times over the last couple of years.
“The idea in reducing the parking charges for the second hour of parking is to attract more visitors and shoppers in a bid to give a boost to those businesses in the town centre, while also bringing in some much-needed funds to improve and modernise our town’s parking facilities.”
Shoppers staying for longer than two hours though will see an increase in charges.
Adur and Worthing councils told us:
Monday to Saturday parking for visitors for up to three hours will rise from £3.60 to £3.90, while up to four hours increases from £4.80 to £5.20, up to five hours goes up from £6 to £6.50 and all-day parking increases by £1 to £11.
On a Sunday, the maximum charge is £3 in the multi-storey car parks for the first three hours before rising slightly to £4 for up to four hours and £5 for all-day parking.
There will also be a small increase in the town centre workers’ tariff. Currently staff working in the BN11 postcode are entitled to apply for a town centre workers’ permit which caps the fee at any of the three multi-storeys.The current tariff is £4 for Buckingham Road and £5 for High Street and Grafton car parks, but will go up to £6 across all three car parks.
Cllr Kevin Jenkins added:
“The increases for longer stays are very modest and remain incredibly competitive compared to similar local authorities in the area.
“There is also a slight increase to the town centre workers’ tariff, a scheme specific to Worthing. But even with this increase, those using the scheme benefit from a 45% reduction in the cost of all-day parking.
“As we respond to the Climate Emergency we really need to be encouraging car users into more sustainable forms of transport when accessing the town.”
Improvements to Worthing’s car parks are ongoing with upgrades to payment technology already underway, as well as major investment in Buckingham Road due to take place this year.
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