Since the end of March, car parks operated by West Berkshire Council have been free to help make life easier for key and essential workers at this difficult time.

From Monday 1 June we are starting to reintroduce charging again as the restrictions on lockdown are starting to ease, allowing more people to go to work if they can and for visitors to venture out to the towns and villages across the district.

It should be noted that PaybyPhone is available in all Council Car Parks and we would recommend this option or contactless payment (where available). We are working with our suppliers to add further contactless options in more of our car parks.

Social distancing still needs to be adhered to and there will be plenty of signage across all car parks to highlight this.

Cllr Richard Somner, Executive Member for Transport and Countryside at West Berkshire Council, said: “Like the rest of England, we are seeing an increase in vehicles and footfall across our towns since the restrictions were relaxed a few weeks ago. In turn this has meant that our car parks, which have been free for the last few months, are starting to get busy again as more and more people are heading back to work, shopping or venturing out for their exercise.

“We have received praise from key and essential workers about keeping car parks open and not charging while they carried out their vital roles. Residents have done the right thing by staying home to save lives but we feel now is the right time to start reintroducing the car park charges across all council owned car parks in West Berkshire as we all start to head back into some sort of normality.”

For more information on which car parks are open or closed and their charges, please visit our website.