The city's biggest car park is £4.70 for 24 hours, not the £7.10 the council's own zone table implies. Every tariff, the Sunday trap, permits and the Shrub Hill comparison.

Worcester City Council publishes its parking charges across a dozen pages, and they do not all agree. Its zone table prices the city’s biggest car park at £7.10 for a day. The car park’s own page, and the council’s long stay table, both say £4.70.

This page gathers every council tariff on one screen, flags where the council contradicts itself, and compares the station car park with the council one on the same road. Every figure was checked on 2 September 2026 against Worcester City Council’s own pages and the station car park operator’s, all linked beside the figures.

First, the thing that catches everyone

Charges apply at all times, Monday to Sunday, 24 hours a day. There is no free Sunday in a Worcester City Council car park and no free evening. The council states it at the top of its parking charges page.

The only genuinely free parking the council offers:

  • Motorcycles, in every council car park, in the marked motorcycle bays.
  • Blue badge holders, for up to 3 hours, in every council car park. You must display the badge and a time clock set to your arrival time.
  • Rapid charge EV bays at St Martin’s Gate, free for a maximum 2 hour stay.

The blue badge concession is worth spelling out because the council has no blue badge page of its own. Its menu link goes to Worcestershire County Council, which covers badges rather than parking. The three-hour rule only appears in the small print under each individual car park’s tariff table, for example on the Pitchcroft page.

Car park tariffs by zone

The council runs three price zones. Red is city centre and dearest, green is cheapest and a walk further out.

Red zone

Car park Spaces 1 hr 2 hr 3 hr 4 hr 6 hr 24 hr
Copenhagen Street 163 + 3 disabled £1.80 £3.60 £4.70 £5.90 £8.90 £11.80
Cornmarket 80 + 5 disabled £1.80 £3.60 £4.70 £5.90 £8.90 £11.80
Providence Street 58 + 3 disabled £1.80 £3.60 £4.70 £5.90 £8.90 £11.80

Amber zone

Car park Spaces 1 hr 2 hr 3 hr 4 hr 6 hr 24 hr
Cattle Market 186 + 24 disabled £1.30 £2.30 £3.60 £4.70 £5.90 £7.10
King Street 108 + 3 disabled £1.30 £2.30 £3.60 £4.70 £5.90 £7.10
Newport Street 138 + 3 disabled £1.30 £2.30 £3.60 £4.70 £5.90 £7.10
Clare Street 48 + 3 disabled £1.30 £2.30 £3.60 £4.70 £5.90 £7.10
Commandery Road 40 + 3 disabled £1.30 £2.30 £3.60 £4.70 £5.90 £7.10
St Martin’s Gate 780 + 16 disabled £1.30 £2.30 £3.60 £4.70 £4.70 £4.70

Green zone

Note the missing column. Green zone car parks have no one-hour tariff at all. The shortest stay you can buy is two hours at £1.80. A twenty minute errand at Pitchcroft costs more than an hour at Cattle Market.

Car park Spaces 1 hr 2 hr 3 hr 4 hr 6 hr 24 hr
Pitchcroft 319 + 3 disabled none £1.80 £2.30 £3.00 £3.60 £4.70
Croft Road 231 + 3 disabled none £1.80 £2.30 £3.00 £3.60 £4.70
Tallow Hill 105 + 3 disabled none £1.80 £2.30 £3.00 £3.60 £4.70
Tybridge Street 70 + 3 disabled none £1.80 £2.30 £3.00 £3.60 £4.70

Croft Road also takes lorries and coaches at £5.80 for up to 12 hours, and charges £4.00 for 24 hours to moor a boat.

The St Martin’s Gate discrepancy

The council’s zone table lists St Martin’s Gate at the standard amber rates, £5.90 for six hours and £7.10 for a day. Two other council pages disagree, and they agree with each other:

  • The St Martin’s Gate car park page gives £4.70 for up to 6 hours and £4.70 for up to 24 hours.
  • The long stay table on the parking charges page gives £4.70 for 24 hours and £9.50 for 48.
  • The season ticket page prices St Martin’s Gate in the green zone list, at £779.10 a year, alongside Pitchcroft and Tallow Hill rather than the amber car parks at £934.90.

So the city’s largest car park, 780 spaces on City Walls Road, is priced as a cheap long-stay despite sitting in the amber zone. Two of three council tables say £4.70 for a day. Check the machine before you pay, but do not assume the £7.10 in the zone table applies.

Two current restrictions there. St Martin’s Gate is closed between midnight and 7am until further notice, and the council’s page says the top floor and part of the fourth floor are closed for resurfacing.

Long stay, two to five days

Amber car parks charge a flat multiple. Green car parks and St Martin’s Gate are close to half the price.

Car park 24 hr 48 hr 72 hr 96 hr 120 hr
Cattle Market, King Street, Newport Street, Clare Street, Commandery Road £7.10 £14.20 £21.20 £28.20 £35.60
St Martin’s Gate £4.70 £9.50 £14.20 £18.90 £23.40
Pitchcroft, Croft Road, Tallow Hill, Tybridge Street £4.70 £9.40 £14.20 £18.90 £23.40
The Moors, weekends only £4.70 £9.40 none none none

The Moors only sells long stay at weekends.

Five car parks take no cash, and charge you extra

At Clare Street, Commandery Road, The Moors, Tallow Hill and Tybridge Street there are no pay and display machines. Payment is by phone or app only, and the council’s own schedule is explicit that the provider’s convenience fee is charged on top of the tariffs above. Tallow Hill is RingGo code 17788, Pitchcroft is 17789.

If you have no signal or no card, those five are not an option.

On-street short stay

Three streets have metered bays, and they are much cheaper than the car parks for a quick stop.

Street 30 min 1 hr Max stay
Silver Street £0.30 £0.70 1 hr 30, no return within 2 hrs
Severn Street £0.30 £0.60 1 hr 30, no return within 2 hrs
College Precincts £0.30 £0.60 1 hr 30, no return within 2 hrs

The no-return rule is enforced. You cannot feed the meter and stay.

Residents’ permits

Worcestershire County Council sets the schemes and the rules; Worcester City Council issues the permits. Prices are the same across every zone, but the number you can have is not.

Zone Streets covered Permits per household Price
B Britannia Square, Albany Terrace, Back Lane South, Moor Street, The Moors, Braymoor Road, part of Britannia Road No limit £30 each
C York Place, Windmill Close, 22, 24 and 24a Albany Terrace 3 £30, then £40, then £60
E College Precincts, Edgar Street, King Street, Castle Place, Severn Street 3 £30, then £40, then £60
P 1 to 27 Severn Terrace, odd numbers only 2 £30 each
T Spring Lane, Spring Hill, Hill Street 1 £30

Zone T is unusual: the permit does not buy an on-street bay at all. It lets you park in any marked bay in Tallow Hill car park.

There is a separate scheme for the Arboretum and St Stephen’s ward covering around two dozen streets, including Arboretum Road, Chestnut Walk, Lowell Street, Northfield Street, Shrubbery Road and Southfield Street, with house-number limits on several of them. The full street list is on the council’s residents parking permits page.

Season tickets

A season ticket covers any car park in its zone, and you can come and go through the day.

Zone 3 months 6 months 12 months
Amber (Cattle Market, Clare Street, King Street and others) £292.70 £506.40 £934.90
Green (Pitchcroft, Tallow Hill, Tybridge Street, Croft Road, St Martin’s Gate) £233.70 £428.50 £779.10

Apply two working days before you want it to start. It must be displayed, and a season ticket does not reserve you a space.

Station parking: the council car park next door is cheaper by the day

Worcester Shrub Hill station car park is run by Saba, not the council. It has 99 spaces, 93 standard and 6 blue badge, is open 24/7, and gives 5 minutes free for drop-off.

Tallow Hill car park is a council car park on the same road, Shrub Hill Road.

Shrub Hill (Saba) Tallow Hill (council)
Weekday, arriving before 10am £7.50 £4.70
Weekday, arriving after 10am £5.40 £4.70
Saturday, Sunday, bank holiday £5.40 £4.70
One week £28.40 not sold
One month £82.70 not sold
12 months £660.90 £779.10 season ticket

Sources: Saba’s Shrub Hill page and the Tallow Hill car park page.

The nuance matters. A commuter arriving before 10am saves £2.80 a day at Tallow Hill. Buy a year up front and the station car park is £118.20 cheaper. Tallow Hill is also RingGo only, so add the convenience fee, and it has no barrier or attendant.

Worcester Foregate Street station has no car park of its own. The nearest council options are Croft Road and Pitchcroft.

Electric charging

Tallow Hill charges at 50p per kWh, with standard car park charges on top of the electricity. How many points there are depends which council page you read: the car park page announces ten, then lists four at 22kW and eight at 7kW, and the 2023 parking order records 12 EV bays. St Martin’s Gate has both rapid and fast bays, with rapid capped at a free 2 hour stay and fast bays charged at the normal tariff for up to 10 hours. King Street has fast chargers only.

Residents with an electric or plug-in hybrid car who live within 1,000m of a car park with chargers can apply for an EV Resident’s Permit. It gives free parking between 18:00 and 08:00 while actively charging on a fast charger, though you still pay for the electricity. That is set out in the council’s Off-Street Parking Places Variation Order 2023.

Penalty charges

Worcester’s penalty charge notices are at the lower end of the national range.

Band Paid within 14 days Full charge
Lower, for permitted parking contraventions £25 £50
Higher, for prohibited parking contraventions £35 £70

If you challenge within 14 days and the challenge is rejected, the council may re-offer the discount period. Its cancellation policy is linked from the parking useful information page.

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