Four Spelthorne car parks became free on 8 September. Two days on, three of the four council pages still advertise £2 for two hours and £4 beyond.

Four Spelthorne car parks stopped being chargeable on Tuesday 8 September. Two days later, three of them were still advertising a price on the council’s own website.

None of the four is in Staines-upon-Thames. The council’s Parking Order schedules place them as:

  • Abbey Drive, at Laleham Park in Laleham, about two miles south of Staines
  • Dumsey Meadow, at Shepperton, by Chertsey Bridge, about three miles away
  • the Old Bathing Station, Fordbridge Road, Sunbury-on-Thames, about four and a half miles
  • Green Street, at Sunbury Park, Sunbury-on-Thames

What the Order actually did

Spelthorne Borough Council’s public notice of 13 August 2026 lists the changes it made to the Off-Street Parking Places Order. One of them reads:

Removal of Abbey Drive, Dumsey Meadow, Old Bathing Station and Green Street from Schedule 1 chargeable tariffs, and addition of the same car parks to Schedule 3 Free parking places with 11 hour maximum stay.

The same notice says the Order “comes into operation on 08/09/2026”. Nothing has been published since withdrawing or delaying it.

What the council’s website says

We read every one of the four pages on 10 September.

  • Dumsey Meadow, the Old Bathing Station and Sunbury Park and Green Street were all live, all last modified 11 August 2026, and all three still published the old tariff: first hour free, £2 up to two hours and £4 beyond that.
  • Abbey Drive’s page has gone. It returns a 404, and no Abbey Drive path appears anywhere in the council’s own sitemap.
  • All four have been taken off the car park list on the council’s parking, travel and roads page, which was itself updated on 9 September.

So the council removed the four from the list where a driver would look for them, deleted one page outright, and left three pages carrying prices the Order has replaced. It has published nothing announcing that the four are free.

The council did update four other pages, on the day

This is not a case of the whole website lagging. On 8 September the council updated the pages for Elmsleigh Surface, Elmsleigh Road, Riverside Surface and Kingston Road, and all four now print the new tariffs correctly.

One town-centre page was missed. Bridge Street car park in Staines is on the same long-stay tariff as Kingston Road under the Order, at £1.50 for an hour rising to £9 for over five hours. Its page was last modified on 12 August 2026 and on 10 September still showed the old figures, including £8 over five hours and £4.50 for four hours against the Order’s £5.20.

Two council pages, one tariff, two sets of prices, a pound apart at the top.

What it means for you

  • If you park at Abbey Drive, Dumsey Meadow, the Old Bathing Station or Green Street, the Order says the car park is free with an 11 hour maximum stay. The council’s pages for three of them say otherwise. Read the tariff board and the signs at the car park before you pay, and keep your ticket if you do.
  • If you park at Bridge Street in Staines, budget £9 for a full day, not the £8 on the council’s page. Kingston Road, on the identical tariff, already shows £9.
  • The 11 hour limit is real. These are free parking places with a maximum stay, not unlimited parking. Overstaying is still a contravention.
  • A Spelthorne penalty charge notice is £50 or £70, halved to £25 or £35 if paid within 14 days, with 14 days to challenge.

We have set out the full current tariffs for every Spelthorne car park, and the rules that catch people out, on our parking in Staines page.

Sources