How will Chesterfield's new parking charges affect you?

Chesterfield Borough Council has introduced a reduced rate of £3 for thee hours in all of the car parks that it runs.

The aim is to attract drivers to stay in the town for longer to go shopping or do business.

It previously cost between £3.30 and £3.90 to park for three hours, depending on the car park.

Most car parks will also see reductions in the cost of parking for four hours with a new standard rate of £4.30 replacing charges that varied between £4.30 and £5.20.

Parking for up to two hours will remain the same in the most popular car parks - Soresby Street, Rose Hill and Holywell Cross. However it will increase in others to a consistent rate across the town.

Councillor Amanda Serjeant, the council’s cabinet member for town centre and visitor economy, said: “Shoppers have told us that they want to spend longer in town at a reasonable rate and the introduction of the new £3 for three hours rate in all council run car parks enables us to deliver that.

“In addition we offer a range of permits that enable commuters or daily shoppers to park for less. Depending on the permit chosen these can work out at an average of £2.30 for a whole day’s parking.

“In the past we had different charges for car parks depending on how far away from the town centre they were. To simplify things for customers we have now designated car parks as either short stay or long stay and standardised charges across them.

“This is on top of the residents’ free parking scheme that lets people who live in the borough of Chesterfield to park without charge before 10am or after 3pm Mondays to Saturdays and all day on Sundays and bank holidays at the car parks named on the back of their free parking permit.”

From April all Chesterfield Borough Council run car parks will charge 70p for up to 30 minutes; £1.30 - for up to an hour; £2.60 for up to two hours; £3 for up to three hours and £4.30 for up to four hours

Above four hours it will cost a flat rate of £5 in long stay car parks and an extra £1.30 per hour in short stay car parks.

The price of parking permits have also been standardised across council long stay car parks, except for multi-storey car parks.