Evening & Sunday Car Parking Charges Could Be Introduced By Mid Sussex District Council

Mid Sussex District Council are planning the introduction of charges to use their car parks in the evenings and on Sundays as part of the 2024/25 budget.

Currently, parking is free after 6pm Monday - Saturday, with no charge at all on Sundays, but the 2020-30 Car Parking Strategy could see this all change along with differential parking tariffs for each car park in Mid Sussex depending on factors such as proximity to shops.



The public documentation for the 2024/25 budget and corporate strategy states:
The Strategy introduces evening and weekend charging as well as differential fees in our towns. This is based on careful and detailed evaluation of each of our towns and how they work. The Strategy also envisages the introduction of charging in our larger villages.

MSDC's Scrutiny Committee for People and Communities examined the budget on Wednesday 24th January, but there was no mention of how new parking charge regimes could effect Burgess Hill and other towns in the district or if it's the right thing to be doing.



Flushing Out What's Going On
At the full meeting of Burgess Hill Town Council on Monday 29th of January, local resident Andy Stowe took the opportunity to ask a question of Robert Eggleston in the 'Update from MSDC' section of the meeting.

Andy asked:
"There’s been a lot of nasty rumours going around that Mid Sussex are going to introduce parking charges for evenings and Sundays. Is that going to be part of the budget? Burgess Hill is struggling in the town centre."



Answer from Cllr Robert Eggleston – Leader of Mid Sussex District Council
"We are limited where we can raise income – fees and charges is obviously one area. Parking is one area that we are looking at. The budget is not set yet. 

"There is a line in the corporate plan which shows an increase in parking income. What we are doing is evidence-based and there is a Parking Strategy which is a publicly available document which looks at the three towns and the major villages – not just in terms of the fee income that you get from parking charges, but also around investment in car parks and in car park technology.

"So East Grinstead is not the same at Burgess Hill for example, but the budget is not set yet, so there are proposals, but it’s quite possible between now and the end of February that those proposals will change."




Background Reading - Mid Sussex Parking Strategy
The 18-page adopted 2020-2030 Mid Sussex Parking Strategy can be accessed here: midsussex.gov.uk/media/5653/msdc-parking-strategy-adopted.pdf



Can you spot any hint towards charging in the evenings and sundays within the document? This isn't something that the wider council have discussed in public in recent times.