Wokingham car park charges rose on 1 July 2026: £1.60 an hour in town, £8 all day. Sundays and bank holidays are charged. Five council car parks stay free.
Wokingham Borough Council put its car park charges up on 1 July 2026. An hour in a town centre car park went from £1.50 to £1.60, two hours from £2.70 to £2.90, and the all-day ticket from £7.40 to £8.00. Outside the town centre the hourly rate went from £1.20 to £1.30.
The country parks went the other way for long visits. From 1 April 2026 an hour at Dinton Pastures or California rose from £2.40 to £3.00, but the all-day charge was cut from £9.60 to £8.50. Short stops cost more, long ones cost less.
Two things are worth knowing before either figure matters. Every council car park in the borough charges on Sundays and on bank holidays, which is not the case in a lot of neighbouring districts. And several of the short-stay car parks carry a “no return within the same day” condition, so moving your car between two spaces in the same car park will not buy you a second stay.
What it costs
Prices come from the council’s Notice of Variation of Off-Street Parking Charges No.8 2026, which took effect on 1 July 2026, cross-checked against the council’s individual car park pages.
| Stay | Wokingham town centre | Outside the town centre |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 1 hour | £1.60 | £1.30 |
| Up to 2 hours | £2.90 | £2.40 |
| Up to 4 hours | £5.10 | £4.50 |
| Up to 6 hours | £7.30 | £6.80 |
| All day, over 6 hours | £8.00 | £8.00 |
| Evening | £1.20 | £1.20 |
| Extended day ticket, day and overnight | £9.20 | £9.20 |
The town centre rate applies at Carnival multi-storey, Cockpit Path, Denmark Street, both Easthampstead Road car parks, Rose Street and Shute End. The lower rate applies at Headley Road and Crockhamwell Road in Woodley, both Lytham Road car parks, Polehampton Close in Twyford, School Lane in Wargrave and Station Road in Earley.
One caution about the evening charge. The legal order says the evening charge of £1.20 runs from 6pm to 10pm, and the council’s own Shute End page says parking is free from 10pm to 6am if you take a ticket from the machine. Every individual car park page, though, prints “charges apply 6pm to 6am”. The two do not agree. The order is the document that binds, but if you are parking late it is worth taking a ticket rather than relying on either.
The town centre car parks
| Car park | Spaces | Blue badge bays | Maximum stay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carnival Multi-Storey, Wellington Road RG40 2AG | 529 | 17 | No maximum |
| Easthampstead Road East, RG40 2EG | 233 | 3 | No maximum |
| Shute End council offices, Biscoe Way RG40 1BN | 209 | 16 | No maximum |
| Denmark Street, RG40 2BB | 173 | 11 | 4 hours, no return same day |
| Cockpit Path, off Sturges Road RG40 2HD | 106 | 4 | 6 hours |
| Easthampstead Road West, RG40 2EH | 57 | 1 | 4 hours, no return same day |
| Rose Street, RG40 1XS | 43 | 4 | 2 hours, no return same day |
Carnival is the one with the useful concession: leisure centre customers get the first two hours free, once a day, using a free vend ticket from the machines inside the leisure centre. It also has a 2.1 metre height limit and eight electric vehicle charging points.
Cockpit Path is capped at six hours unless you hold a season ticket, which allows all day. The neighbouring Denmark Street car park that Euro Car Parks used to run has closed, which the council notes on its own Denmark Street page.
Shute End is the awkward one. It is the council’s own office car park, and the public can only use it at weekends and bank holidays, or between 6pm and 8am on weekdays. Between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday it is permit holders only, apart from a visitor bay in Shute End Central with a 30-minute free vend, no return within two hours.
Rose Street is signed as open 8am to 10pm Monday to Saturday, while the charging line on the same page says charges apply seven days a week. If you are heading there on a Sunday, check the signs on site.
Woodley, Twyford, Earley and Wargrave
| Car park | Spaces | Blue badge bays | Maximum stay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headley Road, outside Woodley library RG5 4JB | 205 | 15 | No maximum |
| Crockhamwell Road, next to Waitrose RG5 3LF | 168 | 4 | 2 hours, no return same day |
| Station Road, Earley RG6 7DY | 45 | 2 | No maximum |
| Polehampton Close West, Twyford RG10 9RP | 39 | 4 | No maximum |
| Lytham Road West, Woodley RG5 3JH | 33 | 0 | 2 hours, no return same day |
| School Lane, Wargrave RG10 8AA | 32 | 1 | No maximum |
| Lytham Road East, rear of Iceland RG5 3JH | 23 | 1 | 2 hours, no return same day |
Crockhamwell Road has the concession most people miss: Waitrose customers can claim a refund using the voucher issued with the pay and display ticket. The two-hour cap still applies.
Polehampton Close season ticket holders can also use the West Annex parking on the opposite side of the close, which is not signed as public parking.
Where parking is free
Five council car parks charge nothing at all:
- Avery Corner, Finchampstead, off Finchampstead Road at California Crossroads, RG40 3RB. 41 spaces, four blue badge bays, no maximum stay.
- California Crossroads, Finchampstead, RG40 3RB. Nine spaces.
- School Green, Shinfield, RG2 9EH. 40 spaces, no maximum stay.
- Kingfisher Drive, Woodley, RG5 3SJ. 23 spaces, no maximum stay.
- Hudson Road, Woodley, RG5 4EW. 10 spaces, three-hour maximum.
Three more are free but reserved for residents of the streets they sit on: Rickman Close in Woodley (48 spaces), Pitford Road (16) and Wallace Close (22).
The California Crossroads page contradicts itself, incidentally. Its opening times line says “All times. Maximum stay: 1 hour”, while the maximum stay field lower down the same page says “No maximum”. Nine spaces is a small enough car park that the signs on site are the safer guide.
Dinton Pastures and California Country Park
The country parks are priced separately, and the new rates took effect on 1 April 2026 under Variation Notice No. 7.
| Stay | Charge from 1 April 2026 | Previous charge |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 1 hour | £3.00 | £2.40 |
| Up to 2 hours | £5.50 | £4.80 |
| Up to 3 hours | £7.00 | £7.20 |
| All day | £8.50 | £9.60 |
| Coach, all day | £25.00 | Not listed |
Season tickets cover both parks: £140 for six months or £260 for twelve, and £95 or £180 at the concessionary rate. Electric vehicle bays now carry a four-hour maximum stay, which they did not before.
The expensive mistake at both parks is the gate. Dinton’s main gate on Davis Street opens automatically at 6.45am and closes at 9pm, and California’s closes at 10pm. Getting locked in costs £126 to have the gate opened, up from £120. The council’s own advice is not to assume an open gate will stay open.
Park and ride
Four sites serve the borough, three of them the council’s. Charges below took effect on 1 July 2026 and cover parking only, not the bus fare.
| Site | Spaces | Daytime | Overnight | 24 hours | Multi-day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winnersh Triangle, Wharfedale Road RG41 5RD | 487 | £4.30 up to 12 hours | £1.10 | £5.40 | £5.40 a day |
| Thames Valley Park, Earley RG6 1PT | 277 | £1.10 up to 4 hours | £1.10 | £4.30 | £21.60 a day |
| Coppid Beech, Oak Avenue RG40 1LH | 251 | £1.60 up to 4 hours, £3.20 up to 12 | £1.10 | £4.30 | £4.30 a day |
That Thames Valley Park multi-day rate is not a typo. Leaving a car there for more than 24 hours costs £21.60 for each 24-hour period, five times the equivalent rate at Coppid Beech, and the figure is set out in the council’s park and ride variation notice. Two days costs £43.20, five days £108.
Other things to know:
- At Winnersh, if you use the Reading Buses 500 into town, you register at the machines behind the bus shelters and pay the parking as part of the bus fare. Concessionary bus pass holders still pay £1.00 for parking on the bus.
- RailAir passengers heading to Heathrow from Winnersh have had to pay the full “parking without using the bus” rate since 19 January 2025.
- Thames Valley Park’s barrier shuts at 10pm and reopens at 6am. Being locked in costs £120.
- Mereoak, off Mereoak Lane at Grazeley RG7 1PB, is inside the borough but run by Reading Borough Council, so the council’s tariffs above do not apply there.
- All three council sites have a 2 metre height limit, lower than the 2.1 metres at Carnival.
Wokingham station
The station car park is not the council’s. South Western Railway runs it, with 531 spaces and 12 accessible bays according to National Rail. SWR’s published tariff is:
| Ticket | Price |
|---|---|
| Peak, per day | £9.70 |
| Off-peak, from noon Monday to Friday | £4.90 |
| Saturday, Sunday and bank holidays | £4.90 |
| Per hour, from noon, RingGo only | £1.60 |
| Weekly | £38.70 |
| Monthly | £135.40 |
| Three months | £406.20 |
| Annual | £1,354.00 |
Source: South Western Railway’s Wokingham station page. The RingGo code is 77489. Registered blue badge holders park free.
SWR raised the tariff on 1 February 2026 after what it called a two-and-a-half-year freeze. Drivers quoted by Wokingham.Today at the time reported paying £10.10 rather than the £9.70 on the published list, so it is worth checking the machine rather than the website.
Resident permits
Wokingham brought in a new residents permit scheme in 2026, after a public consultation in August and September 2025 and a traffic order consultation this year. It changed the charges, extended some zones and added visitor vouchers. Permits already running stay valid to their expiry date with nothing extra to pay.
| Permit | Price |
|---|---|
| First resident permit | £55 a year |
| Second resident permit, where eligible | £105 a year |
| Carer permit | £5.40 a year |
Eligibility turns on what off-street parking you already have:
- Two permits if you have no driveway and no garage.
- One permit if you have a driveway with room for one car, or a garage.
- None if you have a driveway with room for two cars, or a driveway and a garage.
A garage converted into living space still counts as a garage for this test, and the council says converting one does not entitle you to a permit to replace the lost space.
Free permits are still available, but the qualifying test narrowed: they now go only to residents receiving Pension Credit and to eligible blue badge holders. Being on the State Pension no longer qualifies on its own. There is no limit on the number of carer permits per eligible property.
The permit zones are set out in three council maps, for Wokingham, Twyford and Remenham and Earley.
Visitor vouchers
You do not need a resident permit to buy these, only an address inside a permit zone. They are sold in books of ten with the registration entered manually.
| Band | Duration | Price per book of 10 |
|---|---|---|
| A | 3 hours | £12.00 |
| B | 6 hours | £20.00 |
| C | 12 hours | £30.00 |
| D | 24 hours | £50.00 |
The annual cap depends on your zone. In zones T1, T4, W2, W3, W4, W5, W7, E1 and R1 it is 50 vouchers per property per year. Everywhere else it is 100 (visitors parking vouchers).
Season tickets
Season tickets are valid at Carnival, Cockpit Path and Easthampstead Road East in the town, and at Headley Road in Woodley, Station Road in Earley, Polehampton Close in Twyford, School Lane in Wargrave and the park and ride sites.
| Ticket | Price |
|---|---|
| 1 month | £95.30 |
| 3 months | £274.40 |
| 6 months | £542.10 |
| 12 months | £1,077.30 |
| 100 day sessions | £486.00 |
| Overnight 12-month residential, 6pm to 8am | £182.60 |
Wokingham market traders using Cockpit Path pay £7.30 for the extended day plus a £39.70 trader permit. All permits are digital: nothing arrives in the post and enforcement officers check the record electronically.
Blue badge parking
Blue badge holders are exempt from the parking charge in the council’s car parks, but the exemption in the off-street parking order is written narrowly. Article 11 grants it “provided that they are parked in a parking space expressly reserved for such vehicles by a sign or notice”. Article 11(12) allows a badge holder to use any other space in the car park, but that paragraph does not carry the charge exemption with it. In practice: park in a marked disabled bay to park free.
Shute End is explicit about it. Badge holders may park free in the marked bays in the Central Courtyard with no time limit.
The car parks with the most disabled bays are Carnival (17), Shute End and Dinton Pastures (16 each), Headley Road (15), Denmark Street and Coppid Beech (11 each) and California Country Park (19).
A blue badge costs £10 and applications take up to 12 weeks (apply for a blue badge). If you move into the borough with a badge from another council, you keep using it until it expires.
Fines, and what the council cannot enforce
Wokingham took over parking enforcement from the police on 9 October 2017. Penalty charge notices are £50 or £70 depending on the contravention, with a 50% discount if you pay within 14 days (changes to parking enforcement explained). Council PCNs start with the letters “CW” and are handled by NSL on 0333 2341 777.
Challenge within 14 days and do not pay in the meantime. If the council rejects the challenge it will usually extend the discounted rate by another 14 days (pay or appeal a parking fine).
There are things the council cannot act on, which saves a wasted report:
- Pavement parking. Not enforceable by the council. Thames Valley Police handle it on 101, and say that on some streets kerb parking is unavoidable and neither they nor the council would intervene.
- Dangerous parking near a bend or junction where there are no lines or restrictions.
- Any parking where there is no restriction at all. If you think there should be one, the route is a road safety concern report to the traffic management team, not an enforcement report.
Suspending a bay for building work or a removal van costs £9.20 a day for up to four days per six-metre bay, or £64.30 a week beyond that, from 1 July 2026.
Where else to look
Wokingham Online’s other local information pages: roadworks and travel, bin collection days, council tax bands, trains to London and things to do.
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