Changes are coming to car parking in Guildford with price rises and new ways of paying.

After three years of long-stay car parking charges being frozen, Guildford Borough Council will raise the prices by 10 per cent. Farnham Road Multistorey Car Park charges will increase from the standard daytime rate of £1.10 per hour to £1.20 per hour.

There is bad news for early birds as the council has also agreed to remove the pre-7am £1 per hour rate. The maximum daily capped tariff will also increase from £9 per day to £10. Season tickets, contract parking and garage fees will all increase by 10 per cent.

Councillor George Potter said: “If you think about how long that [three-year] time frame has been, and how high inflation has been over that time, a 10 per cent increase is a very reasonable increase … and overdue.”

Describing the car parking as a “financial life saver” for the council, Cllr Catherine Houston told the executive parking fees “allows us to keep our services running [and] without it the council would be in financial difficulty”.

Cllr Houston said there is “no intention” to increase short-stay car parking prices this year as they were last changed in April 2024.

York Road Multistorey Car Park will change from a short-stay shopper car park to a long-stay one. Instead of the £4 tariff for three hours’ parking, visitors will pay £1.20 per hour between 8am and 6pm. The maximum capped daily charge will be reduced from £11 to £10 per day.

Contactless parking machines will “soon” be installed into all council-owned car parks in Guildford, according to council documents. The report said the new technology could generate around £300,000 additional net revenue per year by people using car payment rather than limiting the length of their stays based upon the change they have.