Thirty minutes free car parking introduced in Newark and Sherwood District Council’s Newark town centre carparks

Free 30 minute car parking has been introduced for three town centre car parks in Newark, aiming to make “popping into town” a better experience.

Newark and Sherwood District Council is introducing the new parking period at its three inner town car parks — Town Wharf, Appleton Gate and London Road/Balderton Gate — from April 8.

A ticket will still need to be displayed even for the free period, otherwise motorists may receive a penalty charge notice.

The £1 evening rate will also remain at these carparks.

The council hopes that this will encourage residents to park in its inner town centre car parks to visit their favourite independent retailer or market trader, or to pick up lunch from one of the town centre’s take-away cafes.

Motorists will still be able to pay to park for longer periods — and some of these tickets will be subject to a small price increase.

The last increase in tariffs across the council’s car parks was in 2015, the council explained, and the cost for managing and maintaining it’s British Parking Association accredited car parks has increased substantially in the 10 years since.

The price for one hour parking across all inner town and out of town car parks will remain the same, while, for more than one hour, tickets will cost an additional 20p per hour up to four hours, and an additional 50p for an over four hour ticket.

In the outer town carparks the 50p increase will come into effect for tickets over five hours.

Season tickets are also increasing in line with these changes.

Sanjiv Kohli, deputy chief executive and director of resources at Newark and Sherwood District Council said: “Our car parks are managed and maintained to a high standard and we have recently made several improvements to these including to the lighting and CCTV. We will also be replacing the parking machines to improve the customer experience and to ensure value for money and peace of mind for those who drive to Newark and leave their vehicles in our car parks.

“We hope residents will take advantage of the free 30 minutes, allowing them to make those quick trips to a town centre shop or market stall for their daily essentials. It is not something we have offered before and we look forward to reviewing how this change is being received. I am also particularly pleased that we can, once again, freeze the charge for parking for up to one hour in our inner and outer town car parks.”