Every Ashford and Tenterden parking charge is frozen until 2028, so on-street stays £1.30 an hour, not £2. Councillors scrapped the February rises on 15 October.

Parking charges in Ashford and Tenterden will not go up in February after all. Full Council voted on 15 October to freeze every council parking charge at today’s level until the next review in 2028.

That cancels the rises the Cabinet had recommended. The hourly rate in council car parks stays at £1.30, not £1.40. On-street parking in Ashford town centre stays at £1.30 an hour, not £2.

The decision is in the minutes of the meeting, which the council published on 21 October (minutes of the Council meeting, 15 October 2026, minute 188). The council has not issued a press release about it.

What the council decided

The resolution says:

  • all on-street and off-street parking tariffs stay at their current levels, with no increase before the next scheduled review in 2028
  • resident permits, season tickets and car park vouchers are frozen on the same terms
  • business parking permits are unchanged until 2028
  • the borough-wide overnight charge will not be introduced before 2028, and any new proposal must go back to Cabinet separately, not within 12 months
  • Bridewell Lane in Tenterden becomes free after 3pm, Monday to Saturday
  • every existing free-parking offer is kept
  • free after 3pm at Elwick Place no longer ends on 1 November, and carries on until the new Edinburgh Road car park opens
  • tariff reviews move from every three years to every two

The 2028 review must come with a full analysis of parking income and costs, occupancy figures, an assessment of the effect on town-centre businesses and the evening economy, comparisons with neighbouring councils, and consultation with residents, businesses and town and parish councils.

What you will pay, and what you would have paid

The rises below were in the revised Parking Tariff Review that Cabinet backed on 8 October (Parking Tariff Review, report to Cabinet, 8 October 2026). None of them will now happen before 2028.

Stay or permit Stays at Had been due from 1 February 2027
Up to 1 hour £1.30 £1.40
Up to 2 hours £2.60 £2.80
Up to 4 hours £5.20 £5.60
Over 4 hours, short stay £13.20 £14.00
Over 4 hours, long stay £6.00 £7.00
On-street, per hour £1.30 £2.00
Zone B resident permit £60 £70
Book of 10 vouchers £37.50 £49.50

Our parking in Ashford page lists every car park, its rates and where parking is free.

How it happened

The Cabinet’s package came to Full Council for approval. Two councillors tried to change it.

Cllr Bill Barrett, an Independent, proposed keeping the off-street rise but limiting the on-street rise to £1.40. He called a 54% increase “a bit extreme” during a cost-of-living crisis, with the parking surplus “currently running at around £1.4m”, according to the minutes.

Cllr Neil Bell, the Conservative member for Biddenden, then proposed freezing everything. He said the plans had been revised so heavily since September that rises should not go ahead without a fuller assessment. Cllr Johnny Shilton, the Conservative group leader, seconded it.

Bell’s amendment was put first and carried. The minutes do not record how many councillors voted each way. Barrett then withdrew his.

The warnings about the money

Members of the ruling administration spoke against the freeze.

Cllr Steve Campkin, the Green deputy leader and the portfolio holder for the review, said the proposals kept “a small surplus of £230,000” that paid for other projects, including Safer Streets. He said the freeze would leave a future administration “a deficit of a further £1m within three years”.

The council leader, Cllr Noel Ovenden of the Ashford Independents, said “taking out nearly a million pounds over the next three years was certainly not a sensible financial decision”.

The October report had forecast the new tariffs would bring in about £223,100 a year more than this year’s budgeted £2,233,000, with about £36,000 of that falling in 2026/27.

Councillors who backed the freeze raised parking spilling into streets around the town centre. Two Labour councillors, Lyn Suddards (Beaver) and Tania Gauder (Victoria), linked it to the growth in shared houses. Cllr Gauder said the car park at Victoria Park held so many resident permit holders that it could not be offered for events such as parkrun.

Free after 3 at Elwick Place

Elwick Place was due to lose its free-after-3pm parking on 1 November, leaving the town centre with none until the replacement car park opened. That gap has now closed. The offer stays until the new Edinburgh Road car park, on the former Park Mall site, is open.

Campkin told the meeting that Edinburgh Road would open “in the first week of November”. The council has not yet published an opening date of its own.

The council’s own Elwick Place car park page had not caught up on 24 October. It still said the changes, including a £1 overnight flat rate, take effect from 1 November. The minutes do not mention that £1 rate.

What it means for you

  • Nothing changes on your ticket. The prices you pay today are the prices you will pay until the 2028 review.
  • Resident permits and season tickets stay the same too, including the Zone B and other permits that were due to rise by £10.
  • Bridewell Lane in Tenterden will be free after 3pm on weekdays and Saturdays, as well as on Sundays and bank holidays. The council’s legal team has been authorised to make the changes to the traffic orders, and the minutes give no start date.
  • There is still no overnight charge, and none can come before 2028.

Tenterden’s 1,644-signature petition against the overnight charge was debated at the same meeting and noted (our petition story).

The same meeting approved the extra £6.813m for the former Odeon theatre project (our Odeon story) and voted to pause the Ashford Town Council (our Town Council story).

Sources