On-street parking in Shrewsbury would rise from £3.60 to £4.80 an hour, with charges to 8pm. Ludlow, Bridgnorth and Oswestry rise too; Cabinet meets 14 October.
Parking on the street in Shrewsbury town centre would cost £4.80 an hour, up from £3.60, under proposals going to Shropshire Council’s Cabinet next Wednesday, 14 October.
Charges in the main car parks and on-street bays would also run until 8pm instead of 6pm. Free Sunday parking at Frankwell and Abbey Foregate would end. The council says the extra money would help pay for a Sunday park and ride service in Shrewsbury, the first Sunday buses in the town for more than a decade.
Cabinet is not being asked to bring the new charges in. It is being asked to approve a public consultation on them. Nothing would change before Christmas.
What would change
The detail is in the Cabinet report and its appendix of every car park and tariff. The council’s news release of 6 October summarises it.
The headline changes are:
- Charging hours in bands 1 to 4 would run 8am to 8pm, not 8am to 6pm
- Band 1, Shrewsbury on-street bays, from £3.60 to £4.80 an hour
- Band 2, Shrewsbury’s short-stay car parks and Ludlow’s red-zone street bays, from £2.80 to £3.80 an hour
- Band 3, from £1.40 to £2.00 an hour, covering car parks in Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Bridgnorth and Oswestry and street parking in Ellesmere
- Band 4, the long-stay car parks, down from £1.20 to £1.00 an hour
- Raven Meadows multi-storey, from £2.40 to £2.50
- Bands 5, 6 and 7 stay at 70p, 40p and free
The report’s own table gives the history. Band 1 was £2.40 in 2018/19, £2.80 in 2022/23 and £3.60 from November 2025. The column for the proposed rates is headed “January 2027”, though the report sets no start date.
Sundays, bank holidays and evenings
The Sunday changes are where most regular visitors would notice a difference.
| Car park | Sunday now | Sunday proposed |
|---|---|---|
| Bridge Street, St Austin's Street, Quarry, The Gap (Shrewsbury) | £1.40 an hour (half rate) | £3.80 an hour (full rate) |
| Frankwell, Shrewsbury | Free | 50p an hour |
| Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury | Free | 50p an hour |
| Riverside, Bridgnorth | Free | 50p an hour |
| Back Lane, Much Wenlock | Free | 50p an hour |
| St Julian's Friars (Shrewsbury), Castle Street (Ludlow), Listley Street and Sainsbury's (Bridgnorth), Festival Square (Oswestry) | 70p an hour (half rate) | £1.00 an hour (half rate) |
The band 3 car parks keep their half-price Sunday rate. The report says that is “to support Sunday trading”. The short-stay band 2 car parks lose theirs altogether.
Some car parks would also change band:
- Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, up from band 5 to band 4: 70p to £1 an hour, to match Frankwell
- Shirehall Overflow, Shrewsbury, down from band 5 to band 6: 70p to 40p an hour
- St Mary’s Lane, Much Wenlock, down from band 5 to band 6: 70p to 40p an hour
What it would cost you
Worked from the proposed tariffs, a few typical stays would change like this:
- Two hours on the street in Shrewsbury: £7.20 now, £9.60 proposed
- Three hours at Bridge Street on a Sunday: £4.20 now, £11.40 proposed
- A full working day at Frankwell: the eight-hour cap falls from £9.60 to £8.00, so long-stay drivers there would pay less on weekdays
- Parking at 6.30pm in any band 1 to 4 car park or bay, now free, would be charged
Bands 1 to 3 have no daily maximum, now or under the proposals. You pay for every hour you stay.
On-street parking stays free for blue badge holders.
Why the council wants to do it
The report puts the extra income at about £3.6 million a year. That is £1.6 million from the new evening, Sunday and bank holiday charges and £2 million from the higher tariffs.
The report itself warns the number may not hold. It says the large rises in bands 1 and 2 are “likely to see a shift”, and if more people use park and ride or visit less, that could reduce the figure “by quite a margin”.
Rob Wilson, the Cabinet member for transport, said in the release that government transport funding “is not keeping track with costs”. He also said the money “will be directly reinvested into maintenance and improvements” to transport services. The release links the review to the council’s wider finances and the Best Value Notice issued by the government.
The report also sets out what the service would need to spend:
- a Parking Services Manager, £70,000 a year
- parking asset maintenance, £500,000 a year
- support for the Meole Brace park and ride bus contract, £500,000 a year
- legal support, £200,000 a year
Its risk table includes one line drivers may find striking. It lists the risk of “charges being greater than receiving a PCN”. A lower-level penalty notice costs £25 if paid within 14 days.
Sunday park and ride
The report proposes a Sunday park and ride service from Oxon and Harlescott. Two bus contracts over five years would cost £575,000. Evening park and ride from the same two sites starts in November.
The council recorded these passenger numbers between June 2025 and May 2026:
- Oxon: 164,452
- Harlescott: 151,172
- Meole Brace: 134,734
Meole Brace was due to be suspended from November but has been kept, paid for from last year’s parking rise. Our report on the Meole Brace reprieve has the detail.
Residents’ parking in Shrewsbury
The report says a residents’ parking scheme for Shrewsbury is being developed, with an anticipated start of November 2027. It names the risk that higher town centre charges push parking into nearby streets. Ludlow already has a scheme, at £100 a year for one permit per household. Oswestry’s smaller scheme is under review.
What happens next
Cabinet meets at 10am on Wednesday 14 October. If it agrees, the council would:
- publish a formal notice of the changes to its traffic regulation order
- allow at least 21 days for written objections
- also consult residents, businesses, town and parish councils and access groups
The final decision would then be delegated to the service director for infrastructure, with the Cabinet member. The report says the scheme could be approved unchanged, changed or dropped. It would be brought in in phases, starting with the largest market town. Cabinet is also asked to agree that parking charges are reviewed every year from now on.
What it means for you
- Nothing changes yet. Current charges apply until a decision is made after the consultation, and not before Christmas.
- If you object, watch for the formal notice after 14 October. That is the route that counts legally, and it has a deadline.
- If you park long-stay in Shrewsbury, Frankwell would get cheaper on weekdays and Abbey Foregate dearer, and neither would be free on Sundays any more.
- If you use Shrewsbury’s short-stay car parks on a Sunday, your hourly rate would more than double.
- The wider transport plan is also open for comment, separately, until 16 November. The Local Transport Plan consultation covers buses, park and ride and parking policy to 2037.
Today’s charges, car park by car park, are in our guide to parking in Shropshire.
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