Our parking strategy aims to get the balance right between providing convenient and value-for-money parking for visitors, whilst managing demand at peak times and reducing the environmental impact of traffic.
Parking fees and charges play an important role in influencing driver behaviour and can have a positive impact on air quality and congestion, supporting the council’s climate emergency declaration, Parking Strategy and Transport Policy.
The new charging structure for 2023 is much simpler and aligns fees across our car parks and ensures the costs of managing and maintaining our car parks is covered, as we experience rising costs.
Colchester City Council’s 2023 parking tariffs offer excellent value, when benchmarked with other city and town centre locations in the region, and were agreed at its Cabinet meeting in November 2022. After which, the statutory requirements for advertising the tariff changes were fulfilled and included both Notices of Variation and on-site advance notices being displayed in the affected car parks and an advertisement in the local newspaper.
To support and implement the council’s Positive Parking Strategy, Britannia has now changed from a short to a long-stay car park, and St John’s from a long- to a short-stay car park. The hours during which tariffs and offers apply are determined by the opening hours of each site.
The parking tariff changes in West Mersea were requested by West Mersea Town Council and aim to provide consistent pricing for all car parks across the island and are in keeping with other tourist destinations in the region.
Tariffs have not risen in all council-owned car parks and not all tariffs have changed in the car parks that are affected.
We would encourage motorists to visit our website at www.colchester.gov.uk/parking and review the tariffs and offers that best suit their parking stay needs and highlight that our best value parking offers are available using the MiPermit app.
Page last reviewed: 7 February 2023