The council is changing the way customers pay for parking in Sandgate Road Car Park. Under the new system, you will pay once you are ready to leave the car park.
Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras will record the time you arrive. The exact amount of time you have been parked for will be calculated and you will only be charged for that tariff/period. This means that you will no longer have to estimate the amount of time you think you are going to spend in Folkestone on arrival.
When are the changes being made?
The changes will be made in early February.
How to pay
You will be able to pay by card or cash via the payment terminals. You will also be able to use our Autobill service, which offers ticketless parking and is the quickest and easiest way to pay.
Autobill
You will be able to register for Autobill to set up automatic parking payments, so you'll never need to visit a payment machine again.
Signing up is easy, fast and secure. Once you have set up an account and added your vehicle and payment details, payment will be taken directly from your nominated card when you leave the car park.
There will be a 20p convenience charge per visit when using Autobill.
Once registered on Autobill, you still have the choice to pay locally at the terminal. In this instance you won't be charged a convenience fee, The fee only applies if you choose not to pay at one of the terminals.
Please be aware that the online registration portal is not currently live and will become available before the new system goes live in February.
Pay station
Pay using cash or contactless at the payment terminal before returning to your vehicle. You'll need to enter your vehicle registration and pay the fee shown on the screen.
10-minute grace period
If you enter the car park and there are no spaces so you exit the car park within 10 minutes, you will not be charged, and the barrier will open on exit. The same applies if you decide not to park after entering.
If you go over the 10 minutes, you will be charged and will have to pay before exiting the car park.
There is also a 10-minute transit period to exit the car park after you have made payment. If you exceed this time, payment will be required for the additional period.
Electric vehicles
Electric vehicles using an EV charging point will need to pay for parking using any of the above methods.
Motorbikes
Motorbikes do not need to pay for parking.
Blue badge holders
If you're a blue badge holder you can still park for free for up to the 3 hours maximum period allowed. You must scan your blue badge at the payment terminal and enter your vehicle registration to exit the car park.
If you park for longer than 3 hours, you will be required to pay for the additional time spent.
Season ticket holders and permit holders
The new system will link to our virtual permit system. If you have a car park season ticket, your registration plate will be recognised by our cameras and the exit barrier will open when leaving the car park.
If you have a Car Park Resident Permit, your registration plate will be recognised by our cameras as being a permit holder and you will be allowed to park up to the maximum period allowed. The exit barrier will open when leaving the car park. If you park beyond the maximum stay period, you will be able to pay for the additional time spent.
More in-depth information will be sent to existing permit holders in due course.
Why are we making these changes?
This is a 12- month pilot, and if successful we intend to roll out to further car parks. We believe this new system is much more efficient and customer friendly.
Our Parking Enforcement Officers currently spend a lot of time in our car parks. They will be able to spend less time in car parks if this system is rolled out, freeing them up to spend more time at parking hotspots in and around the district, such as our seafront areas during the summer and around our schools.