Terms and conditions for car park permits and season tickets

(a) You must make sure you give the correct vehicle registration details when you buy/renew a permit or season ticket. If you need to change the vehicle details, you will need to contact us.

(b) You cannot transfer a digital permit or season ticket between vehicles. You cannot transfer a paper permit or season ticket between vehicles if it has a specific vehicle registration number.

(c) Your permit or season ticket does not guarantee you a space or the unrestricted right to a space in your first-choice car park. If your first-choice car park is full on arrival, we will try to find you a space in an alternative car park. We are not subject to liability in respect of theft of, or damage to, any vehicle in a car park bay or its contents or fittings.

(d) You must park the vehicle wholly within a designated marked bay.

(e) We, or Essex Police, may suspend the use of car park bays.

(f) We may, at any time, ask for proof of ownership to confirm the validity of the vehicle. We would accept:

a copy of the V5C registration document showing the vehicle is registered to your residential address
an insurance document showing the vehicle is insured against your residential address
a letter from a hire or lease company confirming that you have permission to drive the vehicle

(g) You must display any paper permit or season ticket throughout the period parked so that it can be clearly seen from outside the vehicle.

(h) You should not make any changes to any paper permit or season ticket yourself under any circumstances.

(i) We can only issue one Annual 7 season ticket or Evening car park permit at any one time per application.

(j) An Evening car park permit is restricted to one vehicle. We require proof of residency and a copy of the V5C registration document on initial application. If you do not supply this, we will cancel your permit and issue a pro-rata refund. This will be calculated from the date the permit was issued to the end of the 28-day period; we will charge a £20 administration fee.

(k) Throughout the calendar year, there may be occasions when Hylands Estate/Park will be closed or unavailable for general use. During these periods, you will not be able to park with your Hylands season ticket. We estimate that Hylands Estate/Park may be unavailable for up to a maximum of 10 days per calendar year. This is reflected in the annual cost of your Hylands season ticket.

(l) On arriving and parking at one of the Hylands Estate/Park car parks, we cannot guarantee that all facilities will be open and available for use. In such circumstances, we will not be able to part-refund or extend your Hylands season ticket.

(m) You may receive a parking fine (Penalty Charge Notice or PCN) if you do not comply with these terms and conditions.

(a) If you have a valid permit or season ticket, you can park in the car parks from Monday to Sunday (unless otherwise stated) as follows:

Annual 7 season ticket
- Baddow Road car park
- Coval Lane car park
- Moulsham Street car park
- Rectory Lane East car park
- Rectory Lane West car park
- Regina Road car park
- Waterhouse Lane car park
Evening car park permit (Monday to Friday, 5pm to 8am; Saturday and Sunday, all hours)
- Baddow Road car park
- Coval Lane car park
- Fairfield Road car park
- Glebe Road car park
- Meadows Surface car park
- Moulsham Street car park
- Parkway car park
- Rectory Lane East car park
- Rectory Lane West car park
- Regina Road car park
- Riverside car park
- Waterhouse Lane car park
- Waterloo Lane 1 car park
- Waterloo Lane 2 car park
- Waterloo Lane 3 car park
Fairfield Road season ticket
- Fairfield Road car park
High Chelmer season ticket
- High Chelmer car park (levels 9 to 13)
Hylands season ticket (Monday to Friday or Monday to Sunday where listed on the season ticket)
- London Road car park (Hylands Estate)
- London Road temporary car park area (summer only) (Hylands Estate)
- The Stables Visitor Centre car park (Hylands Estate)
- Widford Church temporary car park area (summer only) (Hylands Estate)
- Writtle car park (Hylands Estate)
- Writtle temporary car park area (summer only) (Hylands Estate)
Meadows Retail season ticket (Monday to Friday or Monday to Sunday where listed on the season ticket)
- Meadows Retail car park (levels 3 and 4 only)
Meadows Surface season ticket
- Meadows Surface car park
Townfield Street season ticket
- Townfield Street car park (ground floor only)
West End business permit
- West End Business car park

(b) Car park names are displayed on tariff boards at each car park and exits for each car park are also signed. As long as you have a valid permit or season ticket, you do not need to pay the daily fees.

(c) Where there is a barrier pass reader at the entrance, you must stop your vehicle alongside the reader and tap your barrier pass against it. The barrier arm will rise, allowing you to enter the car park.

(d) There is a barrier pass reader at the entrance and exit of the following car parks:

High Chelmer car park (entrance via Bell Mead; three exit lanes)
Meadows Retail car park (entrance via Wharf Road; two exit lanes)
Townfield Street car park (entrance via the Broomfield Road gyratory system and Glebe Road; one exit lane)

(e) If the barrier fails to open, you should press the ticket issue button that will raise the barrier. If you need assistance when exiting the car park, you should press the “help” button on the machine.

(f) Your barrier pass will not allow access to other car parks. There is also a built-in anti-passback facility that will not allow you to re-enter the same car park continuously in one day.

(g) Any barrier pass issued to you remains our property and you must return it promptly to us if so requested. We may give 60 days’ notice that a barrier pass card scheme is finishing.

(h) Whilst we aim to open our multi-storey car parks at the advertised opening times, we may occasionally be unable to fully open them until later. However, we give priority to opening the entry gates for vehicles before we open any other points of access. Our normal opening times for our multi-storey car parks are as follows:

High Chelmer car park
- Monday to Saturday, 6am to 10pm
- Sunday, 6am to 6pm
Meadows Retail car park
- Monday to Saturday, 6am to 10pm
- Sunday, 6am to 6pm
Townfield Street car park
- Monday to Saturday, 5:30am to 11pm
- Sunday, 6am to 6pm

(i) Our multi-storey car parks are locked outside of the above times. If you are locked in one of our car parks after it closes, you can call 01245 606299. However, depending on staffing levels, you may not get your vehicle released immediately. If you are able to get your vehicle released immediately, you will need to pay a £50 release fee.

(j) In the interests of safety, and out of consideration for others, you should drive and park your vehicle with care. You should observe any speed limits or directional signs/markings at all times. If you do not observe these rules, we may cancel your permit or season ticket.

(a) If your permit, season ticket or barrier pass is lost, stolen or damaged, you should contact us immediately. We can then cancel permit, season ticket or barrier pass to prevent misuse and issue you with a replacement. Our Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs) will identify any fraudulent misuse and may issue the vehicle with a parking fine (Penalty Charge Notice or PCN).

(b) You will need to pay a £10 administration fee to cover the cost of a replacement permit, season ticket or barrier pass.

(a) Permit and season tickets are paid for monthly or yearly by Direct Debit on the first day of every month. We will invoice you for payment during the month preceding the renewal due date. If we do not receive payment, we will assume that you no longer require your permit or season ticket and will re-allocate it accordingly.

(b) We will send invoices to the email address you gave us in your original application. If you have changed your email address or any other contact details, you must provide us with written notice of this. If we cannot contact you, we may cancel your permit or season ticket and you may receive a parking fine (Penalty Charge Notice or PCN).

(c) We will not refund you for any period of non-use, such as holidays or sickness.

(d) We will inform all permit and season ticket holders of any fee increases.

(e) We may invoice you for a permit or season ticket in one month ahead of fee increases the following month. If this happens, we will include any fee increases which take effect from the following month. If we do not implement these fee increases (either fully or partially), we will refund you accordingly.

(f) If you do not pay, we will be entitled to cancel your permit or season ticket (and block any barrier passes) immediately without prior notice.

(a) If you want to cancel your permit or season ticket, you must provide us with at least one month’s written notice to cancel it. This covers those days during which you had access to the car park(s), even if you did not actually used it/them. We will then contact you to arrange a pro-rata refund, calculated from the date when you contacted us.

(b) "Misuse" means you, or someone else using your vehicle with your permission, are fraudulently using our car parks in contravention of these terms and conditions. We may cancel your permit or season ticket (and block any barrier passes), or prevent you from buying anything further, if we suspect misuse. If we cancel it, we will give you five working days’ written notice.

(c) If you have a paper permit or season ticket which we have cancelled, you must return it to us immediately. If you do not return it, you will be liable to pay an administration fee to cover the cost of a replacement.

(d) If you have a car park barrier pass for a permit or season ticket which we have cancelled, you must return it to us immediately. If you do not return it, you will be liable to pay an administration fee to cover the cost of a replacement.

(e) If we have cancelled your permit or season ticket for misuse, we will not refund you for any remaining time on the permit or season ticket.

(a) You should contact us by email or post to provide us with any written notice.

(a) Subject to (b) below, we can vary the terms and conditions on this page at any time. If you continue to use your permit or season ticket, we will consider that you have accepted these variations.

(b) We will not:

ask you to pay any additional or further monies for the period which your permit or season ticket relates to
reduce the period for which your permit or season ticket is valid
seek to impose any other retrospective liability

(c) If you do not accept any variations to these terms and conditions, you can contact us and we will arrange a refund for you.

(a) We are a Data Controller for the purposes of data protection legislation. All personal information is held and processed in accordance with this. You can refer to our Privacy Notices published on our website at chelmsford.gov.uk/privacy for details. You can contact us if you need the privacy notice in an alternative format.