Parking in Bournemouth: £6.40 or £28 for the Same Day

Park for 24 hours in Madeira Road multi-storey and it costs £6.40. Park for 24 hours at Bath Road South, a short walk away in the same postcode district, and between 15 March and 31 October it costs £28.

Both are BCP Council car parks. Both are in BH1. The council publishes 146 separate car park pages and never puts two of them side by side, so almost nobody knows.

This page does the comparison, lists the streets that stop charging at 5pm or at the weekend, and covers permits, blue badges and the station. Every figure comes from BCP Council’s own car park records and was checked on 26 August 2026.

The 24-hour price, ranked

These are all council car parks within walking distance of Bournemouth town centre or the beach.

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“Summer” on the seafront car parks means 15 March to 31 October. The winter tariff runs 1 November to 14 March.

The cheap group is not hidden away. Madeira Road multi-storey is off Old Christchurch Road, in the middle of town, with 382 spaces. It charges £2.10 for an hour, £3.30 for two, £5.80 for four and £6.40 for 24. Nothing beyond four hours costs any more.

King’s Park has 500 spaces and 66 disabled bays, the most of any car park in the area, at the same £6.40 for 24 hours. It also takes coaches, lorries and motorhomes, at £11.50 for 24 hours.

Short stays in the centre

If you are only there for an hour or two, the ranking changes.

Glen Fern is a short-stay car park with a four-hour maximum and no return within two hours, so it is not an option for a working day. Its four-hour price is also £2 more than Madeira Road’s.

Richmond Gardens is the biggest car park in Bournemouth at 859 spaces, but check the time before you use the lifts. They and the internal stairs close at 5pm Monday to Saturday and 4pm on Sunday. After that you leave by the rear external steps to Old Christchurch Road, or by the vehicle entrance at the top of Richmond Hill. The height limit is 1.91 metres, the tightest in town.

Free parking, and the traps

Bournemouth has no free town-centre car park. It does have on-street bays that stop charging, and the rules differ street by street.

Two roads charge on weekdays only, so they are free all weekend:

• Derby Road, BH1 3QB, 10 spaces. Charges Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
• Manor Road east of Derby Road, BH1 3HZ, 74 spaces. Charges Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

That second one is the trap worth knowing. Manor Road is charged differently on either side of the Derby Road junction. The stretch west of Derby Road, 58 spaces, charges Monday to Sunday. The tariff is identical, the days are not. Two sets of bays on the same road, a few metres apart, and only one of them is free on a Saturday.

These East Cliff streets charge seven days but stop at 5pm, so they are free every evening:

• Gervis Road, BH1 3EQ, 97 spaces
• Meyrick Road, BH1 3EB, 28 spaces
• Manor Road west of Derby Road, BH1 3HF, 58 spaces
• East Overcliff Drive North Spur, BH1 3BZ, 12 spaces
• Cambridge Road, BH2 6AG, 16 spaces
• Dean Park Road, BH1 1JB, 17 spaces
• St Paul’s Lane, BH8 8AJ, 7 spaces

All seven run the same tariff: £2.80 for an hour, £4.60 for two, £6.70 for four, £8.80 for six and £10.70 for eight hours.

East Overcliff Drive itself is the exception, and it is the expensive one. Its 218 spaces are charged Monday to Sunday until 8pm, not 5pm, and 11 hours costs £19.80. The 12-space north spur of the same road, a few metres away, charges only until 5pm and tops out at £10.70. There are also three-day and five-day passes on the main road at £22.50 and £44.70, but only by phone.

In the shopping streets the free hour is late in the evening:

• Wootton Gardens, BH1 1PW: free 6pm to 8.30am
• Westover Road, BH1 2BZ: free after 8pm
• Old Christchurch Road, BH1 1JZ: charged Monday to Saturday only, so free on Sundays
• Glen Fern Road, Madeira Road, Richmond Hill and Upper Hinton Road on-street: charged Monday to Saturday, 8am to 8pm, so free on Sundays

Several central streets, including Hinton Road, Bourne Avenue, Braidley Road and Westover Road, start charging at 10am on Sundays rather than 9am.

Slades Farm in BH10 gives three hours free, Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm, then £2.60 for three to five hours and £5.10 beyond that. It is free from 6pm to 8am on weekdays and all weekend. The catch is that you must still take a pay and display ticket from the machine for the free period.

The beaches

Every BCP beach car park charges the same seasonal tariff, and the winter drop is severe.

A winter day at the beach costs £5.30. The same day in August costs £23.60.

Two of them lock their gates overnight. Warren Edge in Southbourne closes between 11.59pm and 8am. Hengistbury Head is locked between 10pm and 5am, and it sells a seven-day ticket for £51.80, which no other beach car park does. It is also the largest, at 704 spaces.

Boscombe Undercliff is charged completely differently, and only in high summer. Between 2 July and 2 September the price depends on what time you arrive, not how long you stay:

• arrive before 2pm: £19.10
• arrive between 2pm and 4pm: £13
• arrive after 4pm: £8.20
• arrive after 6pm: £4.10

Outside those nine weeks it reverts to hourly rates, £3.20 for an hour up to £13.60 for six. From 29 October to 31 March it is £2.70 for two hours and £5.30 for longer. Its page states charges apply including bank holidays. The car park has 355 spaces, 23 of them disabled bays, and it is closed to vehicles between midnight and 8am.

Permits

Seven years after the three councils merged, BCP still runs three separate permit systems, one each for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, with a different sign-in account for each. A Poole permit is not a Bournemouth permit.

Residents’ parking is rare in Bournemouth. There are twelve zones in total, and most cover a single street.

Only zones A1 and S1 include a visitor permit. Everywhere else it is one resident permit per property and nothing for guests.

The evening and weekend car park permit is the best value the council sells. It runs Monday to Friday 5pm to 8am and all day Saturday and Sunday, and it can be shared between two vehicles, though not at the same time.

• Seabourne Road, Woodside Road, Hawkwood Road (3 and Main): £145 a year
• Cranmer Road, Queens Road: £219 a year
• Alumhurst Road and Landseer Road, Milburn Road and Princess Road, Town Centre Outer: £290 a year

Town Centre Outer covers Cotlands Road, Berry Court, Madeira Road and Lansdowne Road.

Full-time permits cost a great deal more. Town Centre, valid at Central, Richmond Hill, Winter Gardens, West Hill and Keystone House, is £1,291 a year or £683 for six months. Richmond Gardens multi-storey is the dearest at £1,364, and Avenue Road and Town Centre Outer are £1,146. The council warns on its own page that a permit does not guarantee a space. A monthly permit at Avenue Road is £93, at King’s Park £45 and at Seabourne Road £35.

Richmond Gardens and Avenue Road permits take five working days to process, and cannot start on a weekend or a bank holiday.

Blue badges and disabled bays

BCP Council does not publish a Blue Badge concession for its own car parks. Its guidance says only that the badge is for on-street parking, and that “the rules for parking in council-operated car parks can vary between councils”. Neither the Blue Badge policy nor the parking policy pages set out a free-parking rule for BCP car parks. Read the signs at the car park, and assume you pay unless a sign says otherwise. (BCP Council, How to use your Blue Badge)

The national on-street rights still apply, and GOV.UK’s rights and responsibilities booklet sets them out. The badge must be displayed photo-side down, and needs the clock disc when you park on yellow lines or where a time limit applies.

Where the disabled bays are, in the car parks with the most:

• King’s Park, BH7 7AF: 66
• Boscombe Undercliff, BH5 1BN: 23
• Hengistbury Head, BH6 4EN: 17
• BIC, BH2 5BH: 15
• Avenue Road, BH2 5SL: 14
• Richmond Gardens, BH1 1JD: 12
• Bath Road South and Winter Gardens: 11 each
• Warren Edge, BH6 4BE: 10

A residential disabled bay outside your own home is not free. A general bay, usable by any Blue Badge holder, costs £340. A permit bay reserved for you costs £480, and converting an existing general bay into a permit bay is £265. It takes up to 12 months, needs a public consultation, and may be refused if you have off-road parking. Blue Badge applications themselves are currently taking up to 12 weeks. (BCP Council, Residential disabled parking bays)

The station

Bournemouth station car park is not the council’s. It is run by the train operator, and National Rail’s station record lists 414 spaces, seven of them accessible, plus bicycle storage and bicycle hire. (National Rail, Bournemouth station)

Council alternatives near the station: Lansdowne Road car park, BH8 8HS, is 40 spaces at £6.40 for 24 hours. St Paul’s Lane, BH8 8AJ, is 7 on-street spaces charged only to 5pm.

Paying

RingGo runs the council’s phone and app payments, and there is no convenience fee at any BCP pay and display location, though optional extras may cost more. You can also pay by phone on 01202 232 000. Most car parks take cash or card at the machine.

One warning from the council: RingGo does not use QR codes. If a RingGo sign has a QR code on it, do not scan it. Download the app from the App Store or Google Play rather than following a sign. (BCP Council, Pay for parking)

The BIC car park no longer works like the others. It is managed by BH Live, its tariffs are set on the BH Live website rather than the council’s, and it is pay on exit by debit or credit card only. Pavilion car park enquiries also go to BH Live.

Fines

Penalty charges on the seafront are higher than usual until 31 August 2026, under a trial covering the roads from Sandbanks to Southbourne. We covered the figures and the roads affected in Bournemouth parking fines hit £160 on the seafront to 31 August.

Also on this site

• Bournemouth council tax bands
• Bin collection days in Bournemouth
• Bournemouth roadworks and travel

Tariffs change. Check the council’s own record for the car park you want before you set off.