Colin Read, Operations Executive Head, said “It was back in 2012 when we last put up car parking charges.

The hourly rate we charge in our car parks remains competitively priced compared with private car parks and other local authority charges and the price to park in our car parks is still one of the lowest in Hampshire and Dorset.

“The decision to increase charges is always a difficult one but faced with a continuing decrease in funding, and rising costs to provide the service, we needed to look carefully at these prices.”

An example of the charges are:

1 hour – £1 (was 80p)

Short stay parking clock (annual pass) £25 (was £20)

More background to the decision can be found at: https://democracy.newforest.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?id=498&LLL=0