Parking in the town centre is set to become more pricey from October, as Bracknell Forest Council leaders have ruled to hike costs.

Council-owned car parks including The Avenue, Braccan Walk and Weather Way will have hourly rates increased by 10p to 40p in a bid to save the council more than £100,000.

Bracknell Forest Council leaders approved the changes at an executive meeting on Tuesday, September 17 – after already hiking prices in the past two years.

The price rise comes as the authority have implemented cost-cutting measures to reduce a potential overspend of £3.5 million this financial year. As well as this, car park usage has fallen by 16 per cent in the first quarter of this financial year, while the number of people visiting the town centre has increased.

From October 1, the rate to stay for up to an hour will remain at £2, but will rise to £3.60 for two hours, £4.60 for three hours, and £5.30 for three hours. A further 30p increase will apply for stays between six and eight hours and stays over eight hours will go up by 40p to £11.80.

The price to park at Bracknell and Wokingham College will also go up from £2.50 to £3.

An executive report said that the price changes could save the council £111,088. It further recommended the changes given the ‘current budget circumstances’ faced by the authority.

Councillor Kathryn Neil, executive member for finance and corporate improvement, said: “We know that price increases are never welcome and clearly we need to balance the income generated to the council and the impact to visitors on the town centre.

“The charges proposed take this into account, are reasonable and competitive, and mitigate larger price hikes in the future.”

If prices were not increased this year, they would have to go up even more next year, which might be ‘considered negatively by the customer’, the executive report warned.

Council leader Mary Temperton added that the council ‘could not afford to lose this income’ generated by the price rise.

The rate of council-owned car parks has already risen in the past two years – having cost £1.60 to stay for an hour before October 2022.

Decisions were made to ‘reluctantly’ increase prices to ‘manage, maintain and enhance’ the sites in light of rising inflation two years ago, with similar reasons cited as prices were raised again in 2023.