Bury St Edmund parking charges for Ram Meadow and short-stay car parks, including Cattlemarket, set to rise next week

New parking charges in Bury St Edmunds will come into force next week.

West Suffolk Council approved the increases at its annual budget meeting in February.

The fee for parking at Ram Meadow in Cotton Lane, Bury, will increase by 50p and all short-stay tariffs across the town centre by 20p, from Monday, May 12.

The changes were part of the council's annual budget for 2025-26.

Three hours of parking at Ram Meadow will now rise from £2.50 to £3, and from £3 to £3.50 for a day

Weekly tickets for the car park will be £10.50, up from £9, while eight weeks would cost £84, up from £72.

Annual season tickets will go from £468 to £546.

All short-stay car parking tariffs in Bury St Edmunds town centre will increase by 20p.

Charges in the Cattlemarket car park, for instance, will be £3.20 for two hours, and £6.20 for four hours.

West Suffolk Council has said the income will pay for associated costs, which include over £1m in business rates that it has to pay for the car parks, and a continuing programme of maintenance and improvements that has seen more than £2.2million invested in car parks over the past four years.

As well as this, car parking income also helps pay for other work that supports the safety and success of the town centre including street cleaning and CCTV.

West Suffolk Council says it is continuing to invest in Bury St Edmunds town centre not least through a range of markets events, The Abbey Gardens, The Apex, Moyse’s Hall Museum, and its work with Our Bury St Edmunds and other town centre partners.

Cllr David Taylor, cabinet member for operations, said: “Car parking tariffs are used to manage the turnover of spaces to ensure that shoppers and visitors can find a convenient place to park close to the town centre, and to ensure there is sufficient availability of spaces for people who want or need to stay for longer including town centre workers.

“It is important that we manage our car parks through tariffs to maintain the balance of short and long stay spaces which are so vital to supporting the town centre and our strategic priority for sustainable growth.

“This income will also support works including the replacement of ticket machines to improve their reliability, £60,000 of improvements to the Bury Leisure Centre car park in 2025-26 and around £300,000 of major works to the arc underground car park which we are looking to schedule in 2026-27.”

The council has also ended its subsidy of a 20p admin charge for people using RingGo in council car parks, one of several payment methods.

From April 12025, customers choosing to pay using RingGo have incurred a 20p convenience charge.

Mark Cordell, chief executive of the Bury Business Improvement District (BID), said he was disappointed by the rise in charges and warned it could be the ‘tipping point’ causing the town centre's success to diminish.

He said: "Our members will just have to deal with yet another blow to their businesses and fingers crossed the public will continue to visit our lovely town centre despite all the increasing costs to them in doing so.”

Cllr Cliff Waterman, West Suffolk Council leader, said: "It shouldn't have an impact [on footfall and businesses] because Bury St Edmunds is still a very attractive place to come.

"The obvious thing would be to increase charges across the board but we have resisted doing that because we want to shield people from cost of living rises.

"Compared to other nearby towns such as Ipswich and Norwich we’re lots cheaper, and we offer the exceptional Bury St Edmunds experience.

"If you want to come to Bury by car, we welcome you, we are good value for money."