In March 2020, Dartford Borough Council took a decision to suspend parking charges in all its paid-for car parks and on-street bays in order to assist shoppers making journeys for essential supplies and help the increased number of residents who found themselves working from home.
Dartford has been the only Council in Kent to have waived all parking charges throughout the various restrictions since last March.
However, with more shops open and normal commercial activities slowly returning, the Council has decided to reinstate the charges from June 21.
Leader of the Council Jeremy Kite said: “We have always said that we’d be up-front with local people when it was time to reinstate charges and that time is now.
“We want to ensure that enough short stay car parking spaces are available to support local shops and businesses in the town centre and restarting the parking charges will help us rebalance the use between long-stay and shopper parking.
“Charges will resume from Monday 21st June 2021 but we hope that the suspension of charges far longer than most councils have done has been helpful while it lasted.”
New parking bays created in Market St., Overy Liberty and Lowfield Street will be paid for by mobile phone or at designated retail pay-points instead of pay and display machines, to ensure they are more Covid-secure.
There is also new parking available in the Mansion House Garden car park (accessed from Overy Liberty).
This announcement on the resumption of charges now means that ALL paid for parking spaces throughout the Borough are back to the way they were before Covid.
Dartford Council’s parking charges are amongst the lowest in the county and any surpluses are reinvested into improving the services of the local community.