Parking Charges Resume In Parts Of West Sussex Today (Monday, 8)

Parking charges will resume from today (Monday, 8) in parts of West Sussex after being suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The fees were suspended in Mid Sussex District Council car parks on 30 March to help residents park safely during the peak of the crisis.

The car parks provided a space for residents to park safely without adding to the road congestion.

Councillor Stephen Hillier, MSDC Cabinet Member for Economic Growth said:

“With lockdown restrictions starting to relax and people able to travel freely around the District once more, the pressure on street parking spaces has decreased significantly.

“Central Government has announced that they plan to gradually ease lockdown restrictions over the coming months.

"Non-essential shops will reopen in June, more people will be able to return to work and the Government hopes primary school children in England will be able to return to school.

“With the reopening of our town centres and workplaces, parking charges will help us to manage the demand for parking and ensure there is regular turnover of spaces, so people have space to park when they want to visit our towns and go shopping.

“NHS staff and care workers with a valid government permit on display will continue to receive free parking in our car parks and designated on street parking bays.”

A number of incentives will also be introduced to Chichester District Council-owned car parks from today, as charges resume.

The council will continue to offer free car parking for NHS and social care workers in Northgate car park, Chichester - which is close to St Richard's Hospital - until April 2021, while incentives being introduced include:

• free parking at the Avenue de Chartres multi-storey car park every Saturday and Sunday, and
• one hour's free parking when purchasing two hours if using the MiPermit app (which is available in all car parks, except for Westgate Leisure Centre and Avenue de Chartres).

Both these incentives will be in place for three months then reviewed.

Parking machines and equipment will be cleaned and sanitised more regularly, while customers will be encouraged to buy season tickets or use the MiPermit app or contactless method to pay for their parking in order to reduce the risk of coronavirus infection.

Councillor Martyn Bell, Cabinet Member for Growth, Place and Regeneration at Chichester District Council said:

"Our parking team has been looking at how best to reintroduce parking charges in order to support council services, while also ensuring our car parks are as safe as possible for customers.

"Using the MiPermit app will help hugely with social distancing in our car parks as customers will not need to use the parking machines.

"We are also encouraging people to buy a season ticket for those car parks where these are in place which will also save customers money, as well as help with social distancing.

"As each of our car parks is different, we are examining each site separately to see what social distancing requirements are needed, and we have also been working on special signage which will be installed.

"This is a very sensible package of measures.

"We've deliberately waited before reintroducing charges.

"The incentives will help people feel safe and give people more time to do their shopping while meeting social distancing guidelines.

"The free weekend parking at Avenue de Chartres multi-storey car park is aimed at helping our shops in the city."

Meanwhile, new signage will also be installed in all car parks to remind residents how important it is to follow social distancing measures when getting in and out of vehicles or moving around the car park.

For more information and updates about the council's car parks and the MiPermit scheme, please see the Parking web pages.

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