A big rise in parking charges for four controlled zones in Brighton and Hove appeared in council budget papers but has since been described as “an error” by senior councillors.
The changes were part of a series of draft increases in Brighton and Hove City Council’s fees and charges, due to be discussed by the council’s cabinet.
They also appeared in a press release that was published today (Wednesday 11 February) and papers for the council’s People Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on Thursday 19 February.
The proposals would need to be agreed by the “budget council” meeting on Thursday 26 February before they come into force.
The erroneous increases covered parking zones C, in Queen’s Park, H, in the Kemp Town hospital area, J, around London Road Station, and N, in central Hove, and suggested that the zones would move from low to medium tariffs.
It would mean an increase of than 60 per cent for 11 hours of parking from £8.90 to £14.50, a new six-hour charge of £11 and a 40 per cent increase for four hours from £6.40 to £9.
One hour’s parking would increase from £1.60 to £2.20, up 37.5 per cent, and parking for two hours would increase from £3.30 to £4.50 – up 36.4 per cent in the four zones.
When contacted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the Labour deputy leader of the council Jacob Taylor said that the published figures were “wrong”.
And fellow Labour councillor Trevor Muten, the council’s cabinet member for transport, later said that the proposed changes had been presented to him as part of the process of trying to make parking charges simpler but had been published in the budget papers in error.
Councillor Muten said: “The mistake is where there is low-demand paid parking, it was moved to medium. And that was not the intention. We want to keep those as ‘low’.
“We’ve made sure the finances add up and we can do this without any detriment to the budget calculation. We’ll amend the paper.”
An amendment this afternoon said that the issue with the parking charges as the result of a “typographical error”.
When Labour won the 2023 local elections, it scrapped higher-rate charges for the same four zones after an outcry from the public.
Concerns were raised about the effects on hospital workers, patients and visitors who tended to park in zones C and H.
In July 2023, the Labour leader of the council Bella Sankey said that the proposals at that time to almost quadruple some parking charges would not go ahead.
After much fanfare on keeping parking charges down in 2023, opposition councillors were surprised to see that Labour appeared to go down the route that they had previously opposed.
Green councillor Steve Davis, the leader of the opposition, said: “Labour made such a big show about not increasing these charges not that long ago so for them to U-turn on that decision two years down the line shows just how desperate things have become.
“This is a begging bowl budget and it’s high time the administration was honest with this city’s residents about why charges are going up so substantially and why services are being cut so dramatically – it is a continuation of austerity delivered by a Labour government.
“Labour needs to stop protecting their pals in Westminster and instead stand up for the people they are supposed to represent and demand the proper fundings that local councils deserve.”
Conservative leader Alistair McNair and his deputy councillor Anne Meadows issued a joint statement.
They said: “Why are Labour hitting hospital workers with eye-watering parking charge increases?
“In January 2025, Councillor Muten described previous charges proposed by the Green Party as ‘horrid and regressive and targeted key workers’.
“Councillor Muten said Labour was ‘on the side of low-paid key workers’. Clearly, the Labour party can’t claim to be on the side of working people any more.”
Big increases are still on the cards on the seafront where different tariffs will apply to the summer and winter months.
The charges are due to more than double along the eastern end of Madeira Drive for the summer – from the start of March to the end of October – and along the whole length of the road and Kingsway, Hove, during the winter.
The charge in Madeira Drive east is due to increase by 256 per cent for an hour in the summer months, from £1.60 to £5.70, bringing it in line with the western end and King’s Road.
For two hours, the increase is 197 per cent, to £9.80, and for four hours by 135 per cent to £16.50.
Winter tariffs are also increasing from £1.60 an hour to £3.30, an increase of 106 per cent, and for two hours to £7.40, a 124 per cent increase.
The draft budget said that the council was looking to save £50,000 by digitising parking permits.
A 3 per cent increase in parking permit charges is proposed. This is expected to generate £633,000 – and new parking zones an extra £400,000.
Increases to on-street parking charges are forecast to produce an extra £956,000 in revenue if approved. This would include a new six-hour charge, bridge the current gap between four and 11 hours.
Parking in streets around Dyke Road and The Level are earmarked to increase by 48 per cent for one hour, from £3.30 to £4.80.
Resident, trader and business permits are due to go up by 3 per cent, broadly in line with inflation, but permits for schools, doctors and carers – paid and unpaid – would be frozen.
The council, like all other councils, is bound by a High Court ruling by Mrs Justice Lang on parking surpluses.
The judge said the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 was “not a fiscal measure and does not authorise the authority to use its powers to charge local residents for parking in order to raise surplus revenue for other transport purposes”.
If a surplus is generated, it can be used to fund transport projects. Brighton and Hove City Council’s parking charge surplus has been used to cover the cost of concessionary bus fares for older people and the disabled and to subsidise some bus routes and other transport-related spending.
The council’s cabinet meeting is due to start at 2pm tomorrow (Thursday 12 February). The meeting is scheduled to be webcast.
The proposed huge hike on parking in Madeira Drive (east) is appalling for working people in that area given that there is no bus service there and no lift. The local councillors should oppose it and consider ways of amelioration for workers in that area.
Why are the motorist seen as cash cows for the council especially when councils penalise and make it so difficult for drivers to drive their cars around. How about charging cyclists for using some of the facilities that are provided for free by councils.
A. In 2016, the UK saw fit to further impoverish itself after long years of austerity. Where’s the money coming from?
B. Motoring taxation pays, in part, for road maintenance. Cycles do not damage roads.
Unrelated to parking charges but Googling for “Wolfson 2017 Gergely Raccuja” may help explain a way ahead for some of the more intractable motoring taxation questions.
What specific facilities are cyclists using for free that are provided by councils?
Pavements
Nice, and easy one! So, pavements are funded from general taxation.
Cycle lanes and the general road system are used by cyclists. Although your counter point will be that these are largely govt funded, projects such as valley gardens 3 relied upon an approx’ £7m supplement from the local authority. Fuel duty and VED generate very large revenues for ‘general taxation’. If cars were prohibited , (as many ideologists would relish), where would that revenue be generated in future?
I’ve always thought the argument for the justification of profits made from parking charges and fines based on the fact that this pays for OAP and disabled bus passes is somewhat hollow. If providing these things is considered to be a social responsibility, why should non motorists be exempt from contributing? I am sure there are many wheelers and walkers who have a short commute and more disposable income than some motorists. Ultimately, contribution to such issues should be fair and equal.
Legalised mugging.
How much profit did the council make from parking last year? I seem to recall something in the region of 20-30million. BHCC make the biggest parking profit across the country outside of London year on year but still complain they have no money.
How about getting the millions back from the i360 that owe the council, how about getting the royal Albion hotel to pay back what they owe also?
But once again, the motorists in and around Brighton are hit hardest with parking and eye watering charges.
Funny how the council have refused to allow the new cancer centre being built at the hospital to have parking.
But happy to raise the prices of parking in and around the hospital. All part of the plan. Is it?
It once used to be cheaper to park on the road outside the hospital than it was to use the car parks on the hospital site. But now it seems on site hospital parking is becoming cheaper than parking on the roads surrounding the hospital.
But the council know there isn’t enough parking on site for people using and accessing the hospital throughout the day, so will have to look to park on the road in some instances.
But here the council are: taking advantage wherever possible of the road users of the city.
I have never seen a council hate vehicle use as much as I do Brighton & Hove! They should be ashamed but they don’t care enough to have shame. We’ll just wait to see what the profit comes out later this year of how much the council made on parking in the last year! I wonder how many million it’ll be. But yet where does all that profit go? Cause it certainly isn’t back in to making more parking spaces, reasonably priced parking across the city or dare I say it. Fixing the broken and pot hole ridden roads.
Instead it’s spent on vanity projects like Valley Gardens and making long, wide, unused and unnecessary cycle lanes that are only used from 6 months of the year due to the weather. For cyclists still to not use or complain they are unsafe to use!
This council in this city is a joke!
Money, money, money but no care to listen or implement what people of this city actually want or need!!
You’ve got a lot going on here, so let’s unravel it a bit…
1) The classic “council makes huge profit from motorists” line is legally incorrect; it has to go back into road-based projects, and at the moment, this has been said to go towards investing in repairing Tory-neglected potholes.
2) The i360 ship has long sailed, and it’s the best of a bad situation caused by Greens accepting a terrible, inflated deal using PWB money.
3) Royal Albion are expected to pay its debts.
4) It’s logical to discourage paid parking around hospitals; residents would have permits, and guest permits, and you want people going to the hospital…use the hospital parking… obviously.
5) Cycle lanes are often perceived as “unused”, but counts usually show steady year-round usage.
6) Transport research is very detailed; councils shift policy away from car dominance for congestion, safety, air quality and climate reasons and road space reallocation tends to reduce collisions and improve active travel uptake over time.
Quick to blame others – slow to fixing the problems.
You wouldn’t work for the council by any chance? Considering the answers you gave to my comments? Very suss response from you Benjamin….
Especially not responding to the bit about the new cancer centre having no parking and to use hospital parking. Why would the council consider raising parking prices around the on street parking at the hospital if people were using the hospital parking? Or maybe you were unaware that there is not enough hospital parking so people have no choice but to park on the streets surrounding the hospital and the council rub their hands together using that as a money making scheme by raising the price per hour??? Hmmmm…
Please tell me your statistics of how the cycle lanes are used steadily throughout the year. Especially the one running from West Street to Hove Lawns. When it’s hammering down with rain and windy. What is the cyclists to vehicle percentage along that stretch alone? My guess is about 200 vehicles to 1 cyclist. Maybe even more vehicles to the 1 cyclist. Specifically during bad weather? Any idea? I’m yet to hear back from the council about those statistics and I’ve been asking for a good couple of years now…
And lastly, sustainable travel… that’s all the council go on about and care about.
Not everyone can or wants to cycle or get on a bus. Especially the disabled and ill. Neither does Dave the builder. As he needs his van to carry all his equipment and tools to do the job. Getting on a bicycle or bus is not viable? Or maybe Gina the plumber who also needs a work vehicle to again carry her supplies and tools from job to job. Or maybe even Kath the cleaner. That uses her car as her work vehicle too. So she can clean elderly people’s houses and flats to make a living. And can’t carry the hoover, mop and bottles of cleaning products on a bus or bicycle?
BHCC are pushing for motorists to get out their vehicles and use a bus or a bicycle or if you must drive you should go to an electric vehicle. As well as this, the bus company use electric buses running services with 1/4 of a double decker bus, full, along major routes for large parts of the day. The roads are crumbling because the roads can’t cope with and aren’t designed for vehicles that carry an extra 1/2 a ton or more in weight just because it’s electric. Let alone how heavy an electric bus or car is compared to a ICE bus or car. The fact so many bus lanes have indented tyre tracks along vast amounts of specific bus lanes. Shows you the road surface alone can’t cope with the added weight of electric buses. But no, you keep preaching to me about sustainable travel. Maybe more residents and people who work and visit the city would consider more sustainable forms of transport if it wasn’t forced upon, expensive, inaccessible for some all while also penalising the most vulnerable, sick and hard working people just trying to go about their life and work…. By charging stupid prices to park their vehicle on top of all the other costs to use a vehicle.
Nope, and as always, the notion that someone is paid to message people as some sort of hidden agenda is beyond ridiculous. Our City Transport Plan 2035 is the document you want to answer your question, there are automatic cycle counters at various locations across the city. And if you want specifics, put in an FOI via https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/
Your rant doesn’t actually make sense when you break it down, either. “Resident, trader and business permits are due to go up by 3 per cent, broadly in line with inflation, but permits for schools, doctors and carers – paid and unpaid – would be frozen.”
“The council, like all other councils, is bound by a High Court ruling by Mrs Justice Lang on parking surpluses.”
Road conditions are widely accepted to be the result of the Tories halving the nationwide budget for their maintenance for 14 years.
i see so many cars and vans parked on pavements and double yellow lines in the brighton every day.
our parking attendants just walk by. if we were better at ticketing these we might not need to raise the fee for people using parking spaces, trying to do the right thing.
I’m looking forward to the pavement parking ban; I think it’s long overdue.