Forestry England and New Forest National Park Authority hold private meeting on new car park charging plans

PLANS to introduce charges at nearly all car parks in the New Forest National Park are back on the table.

Talks behind closed doors to discuss the proposals have been held between Forestry England and the national park authority, revealed Cllr David Harrison, who is a member of the NPA as well as a district and county councillor.

Many of the New Forest’s car parks including those at popular spots such as Wilverley Enclosure and Bolton’s Bench in Lyndhurst, are owned and maintained by Forestry England.

As the A&T revealed in 2022, Forestry England were also looking at closing some car parks as well as the charges.

Cllr Harrison said: “Forestry England will be briefing members of the New Forest National Park Authority on their plans at a private meeting.”

Forestry England says a reduction in the financial support it received from central government means it can no longer afford to maintain around 130 car parks on Crown lands within the national park.

Cllr Harrison continued: “I recognise that the New Forest is just about the only national park that does not charge for car parking. Unfortunately, the national park itself does not own a single car park so won’t presumably benefit, despite having severe financial challenges itself.”

Stating that conditions at many Forestry England car parks are now very poor, with many ruts and pot holes, Cllr Harrison said that revenue generated from parking charges, could fund a better maintenance program.

However, he cautioned: “Charges will not be welcome by many hard-pressed locals who frequently visit the Forest. We don’t want to see more people parking on roadsides, especially the grass verges.”

“My preference would be for local people to be given the opportunity to purchase a discounted parking clock, in much the same way as the district council parking clock works.”

A Forestry England spokesperson said: “The recreation management strategy, developed by all New Forest organisations, sets out a number of ways to manage the impact of the huge numbers of people spending time in the Forest and raising the funds needed to do so. These plans include introducing charging for some facilities.”

“At the same time, we are experiencing significant increases in the costs of materials and services needed to maintain our 130 car parks. Bad weather and prolonged wet conditions throughout the year have also greatly increased the amount of damage and erosion to the car park surfaces.

“With only around 10% of our core funding coming from government, we need to raise the majority of funds for car parks, trails and all of the work we do, ourselves.

“A sustainable approach to funding New Forest car parks is needed if we are to going to be able to continue to maintain such a large network and carry out our work.

“We are working together with other Forest groups to look at how we fund this work in the future and will share more information as plans develop.”

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