Annual parking enforcement report

Herefordshire is one of the most rural and sparsely populated counties in England, with a population of 191,000. It includes Hereford, Ross-on-Wye, Ledbury, Leominster, Bromyard and Kington.

The Council has thirty nine car parks (approximately 4,500 spaces) across the county most of which are chargeable and have around 2 million visits a year.

There are also over 1600 on-street parking spaces available in the main centres of the county, most of which are currently free and generally controlled by means of limited waiting restrictions. Some of the streets in Hereford city centre are controlled by way of parking charges with a maximum stay of two hours permitted.

Parking charges are in place to ensure the effective management of parking, including the turnover of spaces to help with availability, reducing congestion and improving air quality.

In general terms our parking policy seeks to support our aim to encourage the use of alternative and more sustainable modes of transport to the private car such as walking, cycling and public transport. However, we recognise that, in a predominantly rural county like Herefordshire, many journeys will continue to be undertaken by car and as such the overall supply of parking needs to be sufficient to support the economic vitality of Hereford and the market towns.

Herefordshire Council is responsible for the enforcement of the on and off-street parking restrictions throughout Herefordshire by the way of a team of Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs) who are employed directly by the council and who patrol every day of the week including some evenings.

Our CEOs are also authorised to inspect disabled persons blue badges. Where they believe a badge is being misused they have the power to seize the badge and report the matter. This allows for further investigation which can lead to the driver being prosecuted.

Parking enforcement and financial statistics

Each year we publish parking enforcement / financial statistics.

View the Parking enforcement annual statistics for 2022-2023

All income and expenditure in connection with the council's on-street charging and all of its enforcement activity, both on and off-street, is governed by section 55 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 as amended. This requires that any surplus is used for specified purposes, namely the provision of car parking facilities, public transport road improvement projects or environmental improvements.