Car park charges help conservation in Dartmoor National Park

At its meeting on 6 October 2017 Dartmoor National Park Authority made the decision to implement charges for vehicle parking at Haytor, Postbridge, Meldon Reservoir and Newbridge car parks. The decision follows a period of public consultation and members of the authority considered the feedback from this prior to making their decision.

The public consultation process showed that there are wide ranging views about the principle of having to pay to park within a National Park, but it is apparent that the public expect and are generally supportive of the concept of paying to park; provided that income raised is re-invested towards the cost of maintaining high quality facilities and visitor services. Andrew Watson, Head of Recreation, Access and Estates said: “The current honesty box system employed at these sites does not raise enough income to cover costs and with an estimated bill for Haytor, Postbridge and Meldon alone being over £172,000 we have to look to formalising charging to make maintaining these facilities more affordable.”

An honesty box system at the National Park car park in Princetown was replaced by formal car parking charges in 2013, significantly increasing income and enabling a more affordable maintenance programme. Parking charges will be the same as those currently in place at Princetown – cars £1 up to 3 hours or £2 all day, Coaches /PSVs £4 and a flat rate charge of £1.00 per day will be applied to Blue Badge holders. Charges will apply 10.00am to 6pm seven days a week. Formal car park charging at Haytor, Postbridge, Meldon Reservoir and Newbridge car parks will begin from 1 April 2018.