Terms and conditions for using our car parks

Our off-street (parking places) orders and our council byelaws regulate the use of our car parks at all times.

Every one of our car parks (including their service roads) are not public highway. They can only be used as a car park and must not be used for general access or as a thoroughfare.

The charges and charging period for use of our car parks are stated on the front panels of the ticket machines and on the tariff boards next to the ticket machines. You must make sure you read all the information on the front panels, so that you are aware of the charge payable for your required period of stay.

How to park

• When you arrive, you must immediately purchase a valid ticket or display a valid permit (if you do not hold a valid virtual permit) in the windscreen or on the dashboard of your vehicle. The valid ticket or permit must remain in full view, face up, for the entire duration of stay. Tickets or permits are not transferrable between car parks or between vehicles
• Virtual permits are only valid on the vehicle registration number which it has been assigned to and for the designated car park
• Parking must only be in a marked bay. Parking on verges or thoroughfares, on hatched areas, yellow lines or anywhere else that causes and obstruction, is not allowed
• The inappropriate use of a loading bay, bus/coach area, pick up /drop off point, disabled parking bay, permit bay or other areas reserved for a specific user, is also not allowed
• If you have a vehicle larger than one bay, or have a trailer combination, you must display valid tickets or permits that cover the number of bays occupied. Parking must still be within marked bays
• Unless signs indicate otherwise, Public Service Vehicle (PSV) or Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) parking is not allowed 

Activities in our car parks that are not allowed

Our parking order and byelaws specify that you cannot do the following activities in our car parks:

• Vehicle washing (without the written permission from us), or undertaking any maintenance or repair work - except to recover a broken-down vehicle
• Advertising, selling or hiring of goods or services of any kind without our written permission
• Camping, sleeping, cooking, lighting fires, placing gas cylinders outside a vehicle
• Tethering or feeding animals or allowing an animal to foul
• Depositing litter, fly-tipping, fly-posting, abandonment of vehicles and artefacts
• Skateboarding, roller-blading, biking or similar leisure activities
• Erecting any structure or undertaking works of any kind, without our written permission
• Playing music, making or causing excessive noise or staging entertainment
• Any antisocial, offensive or criminal behaviour
• Using the car park for the instruction of learner drivers

Please also do not leave children or pets unattended in any vehicle.

Parking fines

The following contraventions will mean a parking fine (penalty charge notice):

• Parking without payment of the parking charge
• Parking without purchasing and / or clearly displaying a valid ticket or permit
• Parking after the expiry of paid for time
• Parking other than wholly within a marked bay
• Parking for longer than the maximum period of parking or making additional payments to extend the stay beyond the maximum period (where applicable)
• Parking within restricted areas of the car park
• Parking within a staff parking, disabled or other reserved / restricted area, without a valid permit or disabled blue badge

How we enforce these terms and conditions

• We will issue a penalty charge notice for a parking contravention, which may be a penalty charge served by post for a drive-away
• We have have powers to immobilise and remove vehicles (for example for untraceable keepers, persistent evaders, untaxed vehicles and vehicles causing a nuisance or obstruction, vehicles associated with a contravention of our byelaws)
• We may prosecute a person causing or permitting the contravention of our byelaws

Please visit our approach to parking enforcement page for more information.