Transport and Streets >> Parking

Parking Home Page

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Introduction

Within our car parks, blue badge holders may park for up to three hours free of charge, but only within designated disabled bays (marked by signs and yellow hatching) and only if both blue badge and time clock are correctly displayed.  It must be possible for the Civil Enforcement Officer to see clearly the expiry date and serial number of the badge, as a note is taken of these details.

If the designated bays are full and you elect to park in an ordinary pay and display bay, your badge is not valid and you must purchase a pay and display ticket and place it in the windscreen of your vehicle.

If you need to stay for longer than three hours and are in a designated disabled bay, we suggest that you purchase a pay and display ticket to cover the extra time you need and display that alongside your badge and clock.  The Civil Enforcement Officers will take account of this extra paid for time, when patrolling the car park.

Elsewhere in the town, a valid Blue Badge must be displayed, showing the expiry date and serial number, if parking in the following areas:

• On double and single yellow lines, for up to 3 hours unless a loading ban is in operation.  A parking disk (clock) showing your time of arrival must also be displayed
• On-street pay and display bays, which are free and without time restriction when a valid blue badge is displayed
• On-street disabled parking bays offer free parking without time restriction (blue badge to be displayed)
• Priory Meadow Shopping Centre (normal parking charges apply) but the 'shopmobility' area on level 8 has wide parking bays and services for blue badge holders

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Places where you should not park

If you are a Blue Badge holder you should not park as follows:

• During the time a ban on loading is in force (normally indicated by one or two yellow marks on the kerb at the times shown on the mounted plates)

Double yellow lines on the kerb indicates loading prohibited, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for at least 4 consecutive months
A single yellow line on the kerb indicates loading prohibited for a lesser period

• In private car parks (unless otherwise indicated)
• In a bus or cycle lane
• On any pedestrian crossing
• In parking places reserved for specific users eg. loading bays, cycles, taxi ranks, permit holders only, and Doctors' bays
• In an exclusive residents' parking bay, while restrictions are in force.  In a shared residents' bay, you may park for an unlimited time.  The difference between the two bays is shown on the sign next to the restriction:

Sign indicating exclusive resident parking

Sign indicating shared resident parking

• In a suspended pay and display bay
• When temporary restrictions on parking are in force along a length of road
• On school 'keep clear' markings during the hours shown on a yellow no-stopping plate
• Where it might be obstructive eg. at school entrances, bus stops, on a bend, near the brow of a hill
• Where it would be difficult for others to see clearly eg. close to a junction
• Where it would make a road narrow, particularly where delivery lorries have to pass by (for example, in Pelham Street near the Town Centre toilets)
• Where emergency vehicles stop, or go in and out
• Where the kerb has been lowered, or the road raised to form a pedestrian crossing
• On a pavement, unless signs permit it

Special holders for both badge and clock are available from our Parking Shop, priced £2.00 each.  You may wish to consider purchasing one of these to help correctly display your badges and to keep them in place.

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