Car parking charges on the streets in the town centre will be going up on 1st April from 60p to 80p for an hour and £1.00 to £1.20 for two hours. This scheme is run by Oxfordshire County Council.

That does not compare well with the Vale of White Horse car parks where the first two hours are free. (Other charges have recently been increased.)

Lots of people pay to park in West St Helen Street when the West St Helen Street car park is only ten or twenty meters away, and is free for the same period.

Most of the Charter car park is currently closed for essential work. So most drivers have to use one of the other car parks. The urgent repair work began on March 3rd and is likely to be a number of months.

Most residents in the town centre, who are part of the residents parking scheme, have out of date permits because there has been no way to buy a new permit during the Covid-19 pandemic. But this has just changed and they can be ordered remotely. Residents need to get valid permit by 1st May to use permit holder bays.

A next generation ticket machine has appeared at the Civic Car Park in Abingdon. As well as the new £1 coin it will also be able to take contactless payments, and Chip and Pin cards. So motorists staying more than the two hours free parking have lots of options including paying for their parking via the Connect Cashlesss mobile phone app.

The new machine even opened the coin slot when I made a movement nearby. I have not heard it speak yet but would not be surprised if it has that capability.

In Abingdon Town Centre some new bays have been painted for the residents parking scheme.

It currently costs residents £100 a year for a permit to park in the town centre spaces, but that will soon be going up to £120.

New play and display machines will be coming in March 2017 to replace the current ‘obsolete’ machines. The new machines will allow payment by telephone, credit cards, and coins, but won’t support the current card based system whereby residents can get a day’s parking for visitors for 40p. New scratchcards will be used instead, allowing 25 days visitor parking, and an additional 25 days at a cost of £20.

Other people using the on street parking will be charged 50p for an hour, up from 40p, and 80p for 2 hours, up from 60p.

The Vale of White Horse District Council have budgeted quite a lot of money in the next couple of years on car park improvements. They will invest £2,000,000 in expanding car park capacity throughout the Vale in next year’s budget. And this year are spending £150,000 improving the public conveniences in the Abingdon Charter Car Park, and £800,000 to transform the appearance and extend the serviceable life of the car park itself.

The Vale invested £320,000 in 2006 on refurbishment and prolonging the usefulness of the Charter Car Park.

So it will be interesting what more will be done this year to improve this facility ten years on.