COUNCIL’S £6.2M CASH COW

CRUMBRIA: 2.4.2026

AS tourists return to the Lake District this Easter weekend, one of our Councils will be rubbing its hands.

The Lib Dem dictatorship running Wokemoreland & Farcical Council has again cranked up the cost of car parking charges – just in time for their return.

Previously, parking charges have generated £6.2m, that amounts to just over £4m for the Town Hall biscuit tin after costs.

This season, all-day parking at parking hot spots in the South Lakes breaks through the £10 barrier for the first time, rising from £9.60 to £10.60.

Those fees are coming in at:

Ambleside: Lake Road; Rydal Road; Low Fold; Miller Bridge.
Bowness: Rayrigg Road; Braithwaite Fold; Glebe Road.
Grasmere: Red Bank Road.
Windermere: Rayrigg Meadow; Broad Street.

It’s easy for Councils to fleece tourists with above-inflation rises. Tourists don’t vote locally so Councillors don’t suffer at election time.

Yet when the Council “consulted” the wider public about a 10% rise, the great unwashed said no by 57% to 36%.

Many warned it would hit town centres, punish rural residents and push more cars onto streets leading to “illegal or unsafe parking”.

Budget Master: Cllr Andrew Jarvis, Lib Dem.

The Lib Dem-run Council went ahead anyway. Kendal’s Tim Farron Fan Club (President: T. Farron) flexed its majority in the council chamber to agree the budget 33 votes to 16.

Only Grasmere Lib Dem, Cllr Will Clark, dared speak out against the party line. He told councillors that another round of parking hikes would impact local families and small businesses too.

In one Bowness location, the council is not even stopping at £10.60. All-day parking at Ferry Nab is rising from £10.80 to £11.90. In most Council car parks, the charges rise between 10% and 13%.

Anyone tempted to complain is advised not to do so at the Council’s swish HQ in Kendal. The cost to park at South Lakeland House is going up too!

Could a shadow war on motorists be part of the Lib Dem agenda in the Lakes? After all, 85% of touroids arrive there with an engine. That’s a reality that some green-minded Lib Dem councillors have never entirely come to terms with.

The Council has worked up plans to make the entire W&F area “Net zero by 2037” – a full 13 years ahead of the HM Government target.

There’s ambitious and then there’s full-on Lib Dem hallucinating!

***

INCREASES ARE ALSO COMING IN AT:

BARROW: Emlyn Street; Fell Street; Hall Street; Market Street; Oldham Street; Whittaker Street; and Portland Walk Levels B and C. (Annual permits rise 10% from £783 to £861).

PENRITH: Bluebell Lane; Drovers Lane; Sandgate; Princess Street; Mansion House front and rear; Penrith Town Hall.

Share this story