{"id":167461,"date":"2025-06-08T11:29:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T11:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/167461\/"},"modified":"2025-06-08T11:29:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T11:29:15","slug":"locals-in-king-charles-town-pay-uks-most-expensive-parking-due-to-tourists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/167461\/","title":{"rendered":"Locals in King Charles’ town pay UK’s most expensive parking due to tourists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tetbury is only two miles from the King’s housePete Gavan<\/strong><\/a> Senior Editor and SWNSpaul (Paul Andrews)<\/strong><\/p>\n

11:47, 08 Jun 2025<\/p>\n

\"GardensHighgrove House, near Tetbury(Image: Chris Jackson – WPA Pool\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Residents living near King Charles’ Highgrove residence are paying one of Britain’s priciest car park permits, yet they struggle to find a spot due to the influx of tourists.<\/p>\n

Locals in Tetbury, close to HRH’s country abode, shell out over \u00a3600 annually for parking \u2013 a figure that eclipses the fees in some of London’s most affluent boroughs.<\/p>\n

This is in stark contrast to the \u00a3257 charged for vehicles in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the \u00a3321 fee in Westminster.<\/p>\n

Tetbury dwellers often can’t park outside their homes and are shelling out \u00a3640 for a season ticket at West Street car park, which is only half reserved for residents, leading to parking difficulties.<\/p>\n

\"CarsA busy car park in Tetbury<\/p>\n

One resident voiced their concerns today, saying, “Obviously we’re happy to have King Charles over at Highgrove – but there’s so many tourists and it seems to leave Tetbury as the car park.”, reports Gloucestershire Live<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Another local, Steve Tayler, 72, succinctly remarked: “It’s a problem.<\/p>\n

“They’re about \u00a3600 a year, a hell of a lot, and there’s no allocated spots for residents so it’s just a free for all.”’ John Evans, 87, said: ” lamented John Evans, 87, who also recounted the frustration of seeing a coach full of tourists from Germany taking up space in West Street.<\/p>\n

“And because there’s a real need for large vehicles to have places to park, I’ve seen coaches in the car park here. It happens all the time. It’s crazy!” he added.<\/p>\n

\"AKenneth Ford<\/p>\n

Kenneth Ford, 68, weighed in on the issue, stating: “Personally I think it’s a lot of money to be paying – \u00a3600 a year!”.<\/p>\n

He highlighted the inconvenience faced by residents: “If you go somewhere with your car you have nothing to say that you had that space.<\/p>\n

“So every time you go somewhere and come back you might not have a space, so you could be paying \u00a3600 a year for nothing.<\/p>\n

“At the end of the day, like in all these towns, it’s set up more for people coming into the town rather than the residents.”<\/p>\n

Annie Bowen, 78, remarked: “We reluctantly bought a permit. There’s no CCTV camera, there’s nothing to protect you there.<\/p>\n

“Last Friday, we were parked in the car park and my husband went to go up the town to fetch his bike from a repair shop and when he passed our car there was a red mini impaled on it.<\/p>\n

“A woman had left it without the handbrake on and it had rolled and done \u00a33,500 worth of damage. So, what are we paying for? We’re not designated a space. It’s not safe, and it’s ridiculously expensive.”<\/p>\n

Dee Buss, 78, commented: “It has really been bad.<\/p>\n

\"AOne of Tetbury’s car parks<\/p>\n

“I have no choice but to buy a permit because parking on the street is nigh on impossible.”<\/p>\n

This is my eighth year with the parking permit and the price has just gone up and up and up.<\/p>\n

“We have a situation where because we have so many Airbnb’s and second homes, people literally park where they see a space without thinking.<\/p>\n

“In the house opposite, there’s an elderly disabled lady who had a hospital appointment on Saturday but couldn’t get her car out because another had been parked over her entry.<\/p>\n

\"TheKing Charles<\/p>\n

“Obviously we’re happy to have King Charles over at Highgrove, but there’s so many tourists and it seems to leave Tetbury as the car park.”<\/p>\n

Another resident remarked: “Since Covid, people don’t have to stay in London, they can come here and work from home. The whole thing has changed.<\/p>\n

“Covid really changed things so there are people living here who commute from London perhaps once a week.<\/p>\n

“Of course they don’t go in their cars, so their cars are parked here, so it is a cumulative problem really.”<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the council does offer free parking at the Old Railyard car park in town.<\/p>\n

Cllr Paul Hodgkinson, portfolio holder for parking at Cotswold District Council, commented: “With officers from the council, I have spent time in Tetbury talking to residents, local businesses and other stakeholders so have a good understanding of the issues they are facing.<\/p>\n

“In recognition of the needs of season ticket holders, half of the standard parking bays in the West Street Car Park on Old Brewery Lane are allocated to them.<\/p>\n

“While we understand that holding a season ticket does not guarantee a parking space and that these tickets are not exclusively for residents, opportunities to expand off-street parking in the town are unfortunately limited.<\/p>\n

“In addition, we also provide the old rail yard carpark in Tetbury which is free of charge. We remain committed to ongoing dialogue with local residents and businesses.”<\/p>\n

Buckingham Palace was approached for a statement.<\/p>\n

\"CarsA busy car park in Tetbury\"ALocal resident Kenneth Ford\"AOne of Tetbury’s car parks\"GardensHighgrove House(Image: Chris Jackson – WPA Pool\/Getty Images)\"TheKing Charles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tetbury is only two miles from the King’s housePete Gavan Senior Editor and SWNSpaul (Paul Andrews) 11:47, 08…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,393,548,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-167461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-ford","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114647517438373965","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}