The £2 overnight charge is out and Sunday free parking at Station Road and Flour Mills stays. Fees still rise about 8% from 1 February 2027, on-street to £2.
The £2 overnight charge for Ashford’s council car parks has been dropped. So has the plan to scrap free Sunday parking at Station Road and Flour Mills.
Both are in a revised Parking Tariff Review published on Friday for Cabinet on Thursday 8 October. It replaces the version Cabinet refused to approve on 10 September (Parking Tariff Review, report to Cabinet, 8 October 2026).
The price rises themselves have not moved. Hourly charges still go up by about 8%, and on-street parking in the town centre still goes from £1.30 to £2.00 an hour. What has changed is the start date, now 1 February 2027 rather than 1 January.
What changed since September
We reported the original proposals in £2 overnight charge planned from January, and Cabinet’s decision to send them back in Cabinet defers the £2 overnight charge. Set against the September report, the new one makes six changes:
| September proposal | October proposal | |
|---|---|---|
| Overnight charge, 6pm to 8am | £2 a night | Dropped, not to return for at least 12 months |
| Start date | 1 January 2027 | 1 February 2027 |
| Station Road, Ashford, free after 3pm Sundays and bank holidays | Removed | Kept |
| Flour Mills, free Sundays and bank holidays | Removed | Kept |
| Bridewell Lane, Tenterden | Free Sundays and bank holidays | Kept, and free after 3pm Monday to Saturday as well |
| Business permits | £594 to £650 | No increase, not reviewed again for at least 12 months |
The report says the overnight charge was pulled “following consideration of the feedback from the Cabinet meeting held on 10 September”. Any new overnight proposal would need its own report to Cabinet.
The business permit freeze followed “stakeholder representations”. The report records a workshop after the September meeting attended by the leaders of the council’s political groups and Tenterden Town Council.
What each stay would cost from February
These are unchanged from September. They apply in every council car park in Ashford and Tenterden, between 8am and 6pm.
| Stay | Now | From 1 February 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 1 hour | £1.30 | £1.40 |
| Up to 2 hours | £2.60 | £2.80 |
| Up to 3 hours | £3.90 | £4.20 |
| 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 (one hour maximum) | £1.30 | £2.00 |
The short-stay car parks are Vicarage Lane, the Civic Centre and Stour Centre, Elwick Place, and Recreation Ground Road and the Leisure Centre in Tenterden. The rest are long stay: Adleys Yard, Dover Place, Elwick Road, Flour Mills, Station Road and Victoria Road in Ashford, and Bridewell Lane and Station Road in Tenterden.
The on-street rise covers about 115 spaces on the streets closest to the town centre shops. The report says 73 resident permit holders rely on the same roads. Blue Badge holders keep three hours free in council car parks.
Permits, season tickets and vouchers
- Zone A resident permit: unchanged at £130
- Zone B resident permit: £60 to £70
- All other resident permits: £40 to £50
- Visitor permits: unchanged at £1
- Town Centre Season Ticket: £85 a month, £244 a quarter, £452 for six months or £850 a year
- Book of 10 car park vouchers: £37.50 to £49.50, so £4.95 a session instead of £3.75
The report says resident permits, season tickets and vouchers have not gone up since April 2020.
What happens to free after 3
The “free after 3” offer at Elwick Place still ends on 1 November. That change was decided separately by officers in September and is not part of Thursday’s vote.
The report now gives a target for its replacement. The offer moves to the new Edinburgh Road car park on the former Park Mall site, which it says will open “before Christmas 2026”. The temporary free Sunday parking at Elwick Road ends once that car park opens, and moves there too.
Between 1 November and the new car park opening, there is still no free-after-3 parking in Ashford town centre.
Where the money would come from
The council forecasts the new tariffs would raise about £223,100 a year more than this year’s budgeted £2,233,000. Starting in February rather than January, the in-year gain for 2026/27 falls to about £36,000. The September report put it at roughly £55,000.
On-street parking makes the biggest jump of any line, from £78,000 to £120,000 a year. Tenterden’s Recreation Ground car park would bring in an extra £30,940, almost as much as Vicarage Lane.
The report justifies the rise with costs. Business rates on the parking service rose from £335,918 in 2020/21 to £434,756 in 2025/26, and electricity costs almost four times what they did. It estimates inflation since the 2023 review at about 7.32%. It also says the council’s government funding was cut by a further £1 million when the final settlement was published.
How Ashford compares
The report’s benchmarking table puts Ashford’s new £1.40 an hour off-street below:
- Folkestone and Hythe: £2.00
- Maidstone: £1.80 to £2.20
- Swale, including Faversham: £1.60
- Rye: £1.55
- Dover: £1.50 to £2.00
Those figures are not the ones in September’s table, which gave Maidstone at £1.50, Dover at £1.80 and Folkestone at £2.60. The new report does not explain the difference.
Two smaller changes
Tariffs would be reviewed every two years instead of three, with future changes starting in January. The report argues smaller, more frequent rises are easier to absorb.
It also writes into the policy what Cabinet asked for in September. Any plan to remove or “materially reduce” an established free parking offer must go to Cabinet, not be decided by officers.
What it means for you
- Nothing changes yet. Cabinet is asked on 8 October to recommend the package to Full Council, which makes the final decision. The council then has to amend its Traffic Regulation Orders by statutory notice, which is a further chance to object.
- If you park overnight, the £2 charge is off the table for at least a year.
- If you use Station Road or Flour Mills on a Sunday, it stays free.
- If you shop in Tenterden in the afternoon, Bridewell Lane would be free after 3pm every day from February.
- If you use the town centre on-street bays, an hour would cost £2.00 instead of £1.30.
- If you rely on free after 3 in Ashford, plan for a gap from 1 November until the Edinburgh Road car park opens.
Cabinet meets at 7pm on Thursday 8 October at International House, Dover Place. Residents can register to ask a question or speak under the council’s Procedure Rule 9 by calling Democratic Services on 01233 330349 (Cabinet agenda, 8 October 2026).
Current tariffs and every council car park are on our parking in Ashford page. More local information: Ashford roadworks and travel and Ashford council tax bands.
Sources
- Parking Tariff Review, report to Cabinet, 8 October 2026, Ashford Borough Council, published as an agenda supplement on 2 October 2026: the recommendations, tariff tables, permit, season ticket and voucher prices, free parking table, on-street space and permit-holder counts, Appendix A income forecast, Appendix B benchmarking, the £36,000 in-year figure and the funding and cost figures.
- Parking Tariff Review, report to Cabinet, 10 September 2026, for the September proposals, business permit prices, the £55,000 in-year figure and the earlier benchmarking.
- Cabinet minutes, 10 September 2026, item 140, for the deferral.
- Cabinet agenda, 8 October 2026, Ashford Borough Council.
Have your say