Visitors to Camber Sands will soon be asked to pay a flat fee of £30 to use a council-run car park. The new charge is only £5 less than a parking fine if it’s paid within 14 days. Permit charges at all other Rother District Council car parks will also increase, following Monday’s cabinet meeting.
The new £30 charge (reduced to £15 after 3pm) is for Camber Sands Central car park. It will also cost the same at the Putting Green car park, however this will only apply for a single season as the site has been recently approved for housing development. The council will continue to offer tariffed parking at Camber Sands Western car park, but at a higher price than is currently charged. The new fees will start at £4 for up to an hour, rising up to £20 for more than six hours of parking.
Cllr Kevin Dixon, the council’s Liberal Democrat cabinet member for finance, said: “What we wanted to achieve is more income from Camber Sands, because it is not fair at the moment that the residents of Rother are subsidising the activities at Camber, which are generally used by people who don’t live in Rother. It is important that we try and get as much back into the council for the massive costs we have at Camber.”
Notably, the new flat fees are only slightly lower than East Sussex County Council’s on-street parking fines (set at £70, reduced to £35 if paid within 14 days). Cllr Dixon said the council had made the case for increased fines for illegal parking in the Camber area.
The proposals were broadly welcomed by ward councillor Paul Osborne (Conservative), although he also raised concerns about the possibility of the price rise increasing traffic disruption. “My only concern would be people driving in there, baulking at the cost and then attempting to turn around when there are four other cars queued up behind them trying to get in the same way.”
The increased fees were agreed alongside changes to the council’s permit parking system. The changes include the introduction of weekly, monthly and three-month permits for unlimited use of a single off-street car park in the district. The council already offers six-month and annual permits for this service. This will come alongside a price increase. Currently an annual single car park permit would cost around £350. This is set to increase to £500 once the changes come into effect. Cllr Dixon argued the permits would remain good value for money despite the increase, noting that tickets would come out to £1.37 per day.
Image Credits: Nick Forman , Shirley Bannister .
So, if they can’t find a parking spot, it is only an extra fiver to park illegally.
This is a shambles what about the traders and the elderly or disabled who carnt climb a steep dune to see the sea it’s disgusting and the families who just pop over to go on the trampolines or other stuff instead of walking over half mile and with children and buggy’s this needs to be altered and must be allowed to pay hourly
So Kevin Dixon says the residents of Rother are subsidising the activities at Camber,surely that’s Pot Calling Kettle, considering the money the loss making del awarr pavilion has cost the ratepayers of Rother for over two decades
This means a day ticket to Pontins at £10 per vehicle and £5 per person could work out cheaper. Someone should tell Pontins there’s money to be made, so they could offer more parking spaces for people on more dates if they have the capacity.