Parking in North Somerset: Where It's Free, Where It Isn't

North Somerset Council runs 45 car parks. Twenty of them are tagged “Free, but conditions may apply” on its own website. Two of those twenty are not free at all, and one of the two is a beach car park where a full pay and display tariff sits directly underneath the word “Free”.

The council does not put its tariffs on its car parks page. Each one lives on its own directory record, and the season tickets and resident permits live in a separate 2026 fees schedule. This page pulls the lot together.

Last checked 1 September 2026. Every price is from North Somerset Council’s own car park records or its 2026 fees and charges schedule, linked below.

The two “free” car parks that charge

Sand Bay, Beach Road, Kewstoke (BS22 9YE). Categorised “Free, but conditions may apply” on the council’s directory. The same page then lists charges of £1.10 for an hour, £2.10 for two hours and £3.10 for ten hours, applying 8am to 6pm Monday to Sunday including bank holidays. Its neighbour 300 metres away, the Sand Bay Bus Terminus car park, has an identical tariff and is correctly tagged “Pay and display”. Treat Beach Road as a paid car park.

Walliscote Grove East, Weston-super-Mare (BS23 1UT). Also tagged free. It has nine spaces, is permit holders only, and eight of the nine are disabled bays.

Where parking really is free

Eighteen council car parks carry no charge. Portishead has the most by some distance, and effectively the whole of its seafront and Lake Grounds is free.

Portishead has one charged council car park, Roath Road, and that is Monday to Saturday only. Clevedon’s only free option is the fifteen-space Ladye Bay.

The Sunday and bank holiday split

This is the most expensive thing to get wrong, and it varies inside the same town.

Charging seven days a week, including bank holidays: Marine Parade, the three beach car parks (Clifton Sands, Royal Sands, Uphill Sands), Grove Park, Melrose and Knightstone Causeway in Weston; both Sand Bay car parks; and, in Clevedon, Hawthorns and Salthouse Fields.

Monday to Saturday only, so free on Sunday: Great Western Road East and West and Marson Road in Clevedon, Station Road in Nailsea, Roath Road in Portishead, and Walliscote Place in Weston, whose record says plainly “Sunday - Free”.

So in Clevedon, a Sunday at Salthouse Fields or the Hawthorns costs money, and a Sunday 400 metres away on Great Western Road does not.

On-street is different again. Weston’s on-street bays run Monday to Saturday, 8am to 6pm, and the council’s charging page states that “charges and conditions apply including all bank holidays (except Christmas Day and Boxing Day)”. Source: on-street parking locations and charges.

Weston-super-Mare tariffs

Carlton Street multi-storey (BS23 1UA), 95 spaces. The upper floors are closed for building maintenance, with alternative parking arranged at the Sovereign Centre.

• one hour £1.70, two hours £2.90, three hours £4.10, four hours £6.10
• over four hours up to 24 hours £14.00
• early bird £3.60, available 1 September to 30 April only, bought between 6am and 9.30am Monday to Friday and valid until 6pm the same day
• evening, 6pm to 2.30am, £2.00; Cineworld customers, 6pm to 3.30am, £1.10
• overnight, 5pm to 10.30am, £6.00
• weekend ticket, 3pm Friday to 10.30am Monday, £26.00

The early bird is the buy of the year and it opened today. Three hours in the same car park costs £4.10, so a full working day at £3.60 is cheaper than a short shop.

Marine Parade (BS23 1BE), 443 spaces. Charges 8am to 6pm daily including bank holidays. Peak, 2 March to 31 October: two hours £3.50, four hours £7.00, all day £12.00. Low, 1 November to 1 March: two hours £1.50, four hours £2.70, all day £4.00. The seafront gates are locked by the Seafront Rangers roughly fifteen minutes before the end of their shift, which runs to 6pm from November to February and to 10pm from May to September. Check the gate time before you leave a car overnight.

The three beach car parks (Clifton Sands 250 spaces, Royal Sands 1,000, Uphill Sands 250) share a tariff: peak, up to four hours £7.00, all day £14.00; low, up to four hours £2.70, all day £4.00.

Melrose, Knightstone Road (228 spaces, 13 EV bays), Grove Park (72) and Knightstone Causeway (31) all charge one hour £1.70, two hours £2.90, three hours £4.10, four hours £6.10, and £14.00 for over four hours up to 24 hours. Melrose has a 2.1m height barrier. Grove Park and Knightstone Causeway add a £2.00 overnight rate.

Locking Road long stay (325 spaces) is the cheap all-day option: 24 hours £6.00, two days £12.00, three days £18.00, four days £24.00. Then five days is £30.00 and one week is also £30.00, so days six and seven are free. Coaches pay £12.00 for 24 hours or £40.00 a week. The 20-space Locking Road short stay next to it is 50p for 30 minutes, £1.00 an hour, £2.00 for two hours.

Hampton, Raglan Place (54 spaces): £7.00 daily, £6.00 from 6pm to 10.30am, £30.00 weekly, and a 12-month older person’s permit at £260.00.

Madeira Road (70 spaces): up to four hours £1.70, 24 hours £4.10. That makes it the cheapest 24-hour parking near the seafront by a wide margin.

Walliscote Place, Station Road (about 150 spaces): £3.70 all day, Monday to Saturday 7am to 7pm, free on Sunday.

Dolphin Square (BS23 1SW) is a temporary overflow car park and is only open when signed. One hour £1.60, 24 hours £14.00.

On-street in central Weston, Monday to Saturday 8am to 6pm: 20 minutes 50p, one hour £1.70, two hours £3.70, three hours £4.70. Three hours is the maximum stay and there is no return for two hours.

Clevedon, Portishead and Nailsea

Clevedon. Great Western Road East (90 spaces) and West (32) and Marson Road (36) all charge £1.00 for an hour, £1.50 for two and £2.50 for three, 9am to 6pm Monday to Saturday including bank holidays. Great Western Road adds an all-day rate of £3.50.

Hawthorns, Elton Road (50 spaces) and Salthouse Fields, Old Church Road (144 spaces) are seasonal and open seven days. Peak, 2 March to 31 October: one hour £1.60, four hours £5.10, all day £8.10. Low, 1 November to 1 March: one hour £1.60, four hours £2.70, all day £4.10. Salthouse Fields also takes motorhomes at the car rate, has a 2.1m height barrier, and charges coaches £10.00 a day in peak and £5.00 in low season. A Hawthorns-only car permit costs £10.00 a week, £80.00 for six months, £260.00 a year, or £135.00 a year for senior citizens.

One inconsistency to know about: the car park record for Salthouse Fields gives peak hours as 8am to 6pm, while the council’s fees schedule gives 7am to 8pm. Read the signs on site.

Clevedon on-street parking runs Monday to Saturday 9am to 6pm and is dearer than the car parks: one hour £1.50, four hours £5.50, all day £9.00 in peak season, falling to £5.00 all day from November to February.

Portishead. Roath Road (72 spaces) is the only charged council car park: £1.00 an hour, £1.50 for two, £2.50 for three, £3.50 all day, 9am to 6pm Monday to Saturday including bank holidays. Everything else listed above is free.

Nailsea. Station Road (230 spaces) charges £1.00 for two hours, £2.50 for three and £3.50 all day, 9am to 6pm Monday to Saturday including bank holidays. The 218-space Clevedon Road car park at Stock Way North is permit holders only.

Station parking

Worle Parkway, Diamond Batch (BS24 7FY), 312 spaces, 7 EV bays. Ten minutes free in the drop-off bay, 20 minutes 40p, 24 hours £3.60, two days £5.20, three days £7.70, four days £10.20, a Friday 10am to Monday 10am weekend ticket £5.20, and a week £12.20. Season tickets are £130.00 for three months, £250.00 for six and £450.00 for a year.

Nailsea and Backwell station, Station Road, Backwell (BS48 1TN), 271 spaces, 6 EV bays. Twenty minutes 40p, 24 hours £3.60, two days £5.20. Station permits are £250.00 for six months and £450.00 for twelve.

Both have a 2.1m height barrier and are paid through MiPermit. The three-month season ticket at Worle is worth checking against the annual: four consecutive three-month tickets come to £520.00, against £450.00 for the year.

Weston-super-Mare station has no council car park of its own. Locking Road long stay is the closest council option, a few minutes’ walk on Francis Fox Road, at £6.00 for 24 hours.

Resident and visitor permits

North Somerset only runs resident permit schemes in a few places, and the prices differ sharply between them.

Weston-super-Mare central. The A1 and A2 permits cost £20.00 a year and buy a one-hour exemption from on-street charges between 8am and 10am and again between 5pm and 6pm. Permit B adds a long stay car park permit for Locking Road, Hampton and Madeira at £190.00 a year, £105.00 for six months, £55.00 for three or £20.00 for one month. Permit C is the same idea for Locking Road only, at £90.00 a year. A medical or health worker permit is £60.00 a year and buys a two-hour exemption, used with a supplied time clock.

Weston town centre residential scheme, zone W01. Resident D £60.00 a year; resident E, which adds Locking Road long stay, £150.00; visitor permits £25.00 per 250 hours to a maximum of 500 hours a year, valid three years; carer permits £25.00 per 250 hours; business and customer permits £200.00. An off-street Locking Road resident permit, permit F, is £90.00.

Leigh Woods. First resident permit per household £60.00, second £120.00, both per year and applying 24/7. Visitor permits £25.00 per 250 hours, capped at 500 hours, or 750 if care is included, valid three years.

Changing a registration number on a virtual permit is free if you do it yourself and £10.00 if parking services does it. A refund is whole months only with a £10.00 admin fee. Source: fees and charges 2026, pages 11 to 13.

Blue badge: free on-street, not free in the car parks

The distinction here catches people out regularly, and it is the council’s own wording.

On-street, a blue badge lets you park all day free in any pay and display bay and any limited waiting bay, and for up to three hours on a single or double yellow line unless loading is banned. Use the blue clock on yellow lines.

Off-street is not covered by those rules. In North Somerset’s own car parks a blue badge buys one free hour beyond the expiry of a ticket you have paid for, and at most car parks that concession is expressly excluded from evening, overnight, weekend and 24-hour tickets. The beach car parks and Marine Parade are more generous: the first hour is free, and if your ticket has expired you get an extra hour after the end time.

Carlton Street has 15 disabled bays, Marine Parade 26, Melrose 10, Locking Road long stay 10, Nailsea Station Road 12. Walliscote Grove East is almost entirely disabled bays, eight of its nine spaces, and is permit holders only. Source: how and where to use a blue badge.

Paying, and the fine if you get it wrong

Motorcycles park free in marked bays across the district, and there is a free motorcycle park on Weston seafront near the Oxford Street junction.

Paying online or by app through MiPermit adds a 10p convenience charge. Paying by cash or card at a machine does not. Coin-only machines take 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and £2 and nothing else. Car park tickets are not valid on-street and on-street tickets are not valid in car parks, although an on-street ticket bought anywhere in Weston works anywhere else on-street in Weston.

Penalty charge notices are set nationally and enforced here seven days a week:

• higher level £70.00, or £35.00 within 14 days, rising to £105.00 after a charge certificate
• lower level £50.00, or £25.00 within 14 days, rising to £75.00 after a charge certificate

Source: penalty charge notice costs.

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