Controversial parking charges increased by council

Parking charges in a Suffolk district are set to rise on Monday, after being controversially introduced last year.

Babergh District Council brought in parking fees in its Hadleigh, Lavenham and Sudbury car parks in January 2025 after originally offering up to three hours for free.

A decision was taken earlier this year to further increase those charges by 20%, or between 20p and 50p an hour, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The council said it had raised £890,000 from its car parks since last April, which would help to offset a budget deficit forecast to reach £8.5m by 2030.

The decision was made in a cabinet meeting in January, and examined during an Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting.

When the increases were proposed, Paul Clover, a Conservative councillor, said: "Town centres thrive due to having free accessibility - if we continue to ramp up the entrance fee, they will gradually fade away and disappear."

Deborah Saw, the council's leader, said introducing the charges was the "fairest thing to do" to avoid cutting other services due to the authority's financial struggles.

"We are trying to keep the charges as low as we can – I believe it was the right decision to take," she said.

A report, published by the council, claimed the changes managed to turn drivers who abused the system into paying customers and made enforcement much simpler.

At least 90 customers are said to have abused the system each day by obtaining multiple free stays.

Jamie Towells, who owns a butcher's in Sudbury, previously told the BBC he feared the increases would force independent businesses to close.

"It's been tough as a business because every expense has gone up," he said.

"It hasn't been one thing, it has been everything, so last year was very tough. Probably the toughest to date."

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