Six council car parks charge nothing at all. Time Square is free every Sunday, Warrington West is £1.20 for 24 hours, and Pepper Street jumps from £3.50 to £14.
Most parking in Warrington that is run by the council is either free or cheap, and knowing which is which is worth real money. The council lists seventeen car parks and six of them cost nothing, all day, every day. It also runs three car parks in Lymm village that sit within a few minutes’ walk of each other and charge three different amounts for a long stay, one of them nearly three times the others.
Every tariff below comes from the council’s council run car parks page, which was last updated on 20 July 2026 and rechecked here on 15 August 2026. Prices move, so check the sign before you pay, but this is the current published schedule.
The six free car parks
| Car park | Where | Spaces | Restriction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jackson Avenue | Culcheth, WA3 4EJ | 48 (2 disabled) | None published |
| Cobden Street | Orford, WA2 7AL | 44 (0 disabled) | 4 hours max, no return within 2 hours |
| Sharp Street | Orford, WA2 7AP | 34 (0 disabled) | None published |
| Grammar School Road | Latchford, WA4 1JN | 33 (0 disabled) | 4 hours max, no return within 2 hours |
| Common Lane | Culcheth, WA3 5QS | 32 (2 disabled) | None published |
| Marsh Street | Orford, WA1 3QA | 20 (0 disabled) | 4 hours max, no return within 2 hours |
Culcheth is unusual in having 80 free spaces across two car parks and no paid council parking at all. Only Jackson Avenue and Common Lane carry disabled bays; the three Orford and Latchford car parks have none.
The trap: “free” that still needs a ticket
Several Warrington car parks give you a free first period, and you still have to get a pay and display ticket for it. The council states this explicitly for Birchwood Station, Davies Way, Henry Street, Pepper Street and The Forge: “a park and display ticket must be obtained even when parking for free”.
That means arriving at The Forge in Stockton Heath for a ten minute errand, walking off without touching the machine, and coming back to a penalty charge. The free period is real; the exemption from displaying is not.
The £14 cliff in Lymm
Lymm has three council car parks with the same shape of tariff and wildly different top rates:
| Car park | First hour | 1 to 2 hours | Longer stay | Spaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Henry Street, WA13 0LS | Free with ticket | £1.70 | £3.50 for 2 to 3 hours, £5 over 3 hours | 32 (1 disabled) |
| Davies Way, WA13 0QW | Free with ticket | £1.70 | £3.50 for 2 to 3 hours, £5 over 3 hours | 67 (4 disabled) |
| Pepper Street, WA13 0JB | Free with ticket | £1.70 | £3.50 for 2 to 4 hours, £14 over 4 hours | 61 (4 disabled) |
Pepper Street is the second biggest of the three, and it is the one where a long stay costs £14 rather than £5. If you are in Lymm for the day, Henry Street or Davies Way costs £5 for the same hours. Pepper Street’s £3.50 band does stretch an hour further, to four hours, so for stays under four hours it is the same money or better.
All three are free before 9am and after 10pm on weekdays and Saturdays, and free all day on Sundays and bank holidays. Evening parking from 5pm to 10pm is free for the first hour and £1.70 after that. Davies Way and Pepper Street both charge into the evening on the same terms.
Warrington town centre
| Car park | 1 hour | 2 hours | Longer | Spaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time Square multi storey, Bank Street WA1 2HN | £1.40 | £2.00 | £2.60 for 2 to 4 hours, £7 over 4 hours to 6pm | 1,170 (60 disabled) |
| Winwick Street, WA2 7TU | £1.40 | £2.00 | £2.70 for 2 to 3 hours, £3.70 all day | 50 (0 disabled) |
| Town Hall, Sankey Street WA1 1UH | £1.70 | £2.30 | £3.40 for 2 to 4 hours, 4 hour maximum | 84 (3 disabled) |
| Time Square Academy Way, WA1 2NR | £1.70 | £2.30 | £3.40 for 2 to 3 hours, 3 hour maximum | 40 (4 disabled) |
Four things separate these, and they are all worth knowing before you pick one.
Time Square multi storey is free all day on Sunday. So is the Town Hall car park before 8am and after 6pm every day. The Academy Way surface car park is the only town centre one that charges the same seven days a week including bank holidays.
Winwick Street is the cheapest all-day option in the centre at £3.70, half the £7 Time Square charges for over four hours, and it lets you return all day on the same ticket. It only has 50 spaces.
Blue Badge holders park free for up to three hours at Time Square, with normal charges after that. Time Square also has 56 electric vehicle charging points at 7kW on the ground, fourth and sixth floors, and it is the only town centre car park with a serious number of disabled bays.
The Town Hall and Academy Way both cap your stay at four and three hours respectively, with no return within two hours, so neither works for a full day.
Station parking
| Station | Run by | Cost | Spaces |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warrington West, San Diego Drive WA5 3TW | The council | £1.20 for 24 hours, return all day | 245 (10 disabled, 10 EV points) |
| Birchwood, Dewhurst Road WA3 7PU | The council | Free under 15 minutes with a ticket, then £2.30 for up to 24 hours | 28 (2 disabled) |
| Warrington Bank Quay | The train operator | Not set by the council | 282 (9 accessible) |
| Warrington Central | Northern | Not set by the council | 71 (3 accessible) |
Warrington West at £1.20 for 24 hours is the cheapest commuter parking in the borough by a distance, and it takes 245 cars. Blue Badge holders get three hours free there too. Birchwood is more than twice the price and has 28 spaces, so it fills.
Bank Quay and Central car parks are not council-run, so their charges are set by the train operator and are not on the council’s tariff list. Space counts for both come from National Rail’s station pages.
Walton Hall and Gardens
The one council car park where the price goes up at the weekend rather than down: £4.00 Monday to Friday, £5.00 weekends and bank holidays, £20 for coaches, on Walton Lea Road, WA4 6SN. There are 1,000 spaces and five disabled bays. Opening is 10.30am to 5pm from 1 June to 30 September and 10.30am to 4pm from 1 October to 31 May, matching the gardens.
The Forge, Stockton Heath
The Forge on West Avenue, WA4 6HW is the main Stockton Heath car park with 195 spaces across two decks plus 12 disabled bays. It is the cheapest paid council car park in the borough for a long stay:
- 9am to 2.59pm: free for 15 minutes with a ticket, £1.40 for 15 minutes to three hours, £2.70 over three hours with all-day return
- 3pm to 10pm: free for 30 minutes with a ticket, £1.40 after that
- Free before 9am, after 10pm, and all day Sunday and bank holidays
Resident and visitor permits
Four Warrington permit zones are free: Bank Quay, Heathfield, the Tesco/stadium area and Whitecross. Four cost money:
| Zone | Cost | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Crosfield Street | £40 each for one or two permits | Currently a waiting list |
| Green Street (numbers 1 to 15) | £40 each for the first two, £80 for a third | |
| East View (even numbers 2 to 16) | £40 | One permit per home |
| Farnworth Road (numbers 5 to 17) | £40 |
All permits are annual and it is your job to renew, not the council’s. Applications go through the council’s resident parking permits page, and you need a V5C or insurance certificate in your name at that address plus a separate proof of residence.
Visitor permits do not exist in four of the zones. Bank Quay has 90 minute waiting bays instead, Green Street has two hour bays, and Crosfield Street and East View have none at all “due to capacity”. Guests in those streets have to use the waiting bays or a car park.
Lymm has its own night-time permit for residents of the village with no driveway, valid 5pm to 10pm on weekdays and Saturdays at Pepper Street, Davies Way or Henry Street. It costs £100 for the year or £10 a month by direct debit, plus £20 to move it to a different car. Because those car parks are free after 10pm until 9am and free all day Sunday, the permit effectively buys you overnight parking.
Blue badges
A Blue Badge in Warrington costs £10, and the council warns against paying anyone to apply on your behalf. Applications take up to 12 weeks, and once approved the badge arrives within 21 working days, so a renewal needs starting early. Renewals can only be submitted within 12 weeks of expiry: apply earlier than that and it is declined.
Where it gets you free parking on council land: three hours at Time Square and three hours at Warrington West station, with normal charges beyond that.
Where it does not: a Blue Badge does not let you park in a resident parking zone unless you are in a marked disabled bay. The council states this plainly on its permits page, and it is the most common misunderstanding behind a penalty charge in the Whitecross and Bank Quay streets.
If you need a bay outside your own home, that is a separate application on the council’s disabled parking bay page. Full badge guidance is on the blue badges page.
If you get a ticket
Warrington’s penalty charge notices start with WI followed by eight numbers, and appeals must be in writing, by post to Warrington Notice Processing, PO Box 229, Sheffield, S98 1PF, or by email. There is no phone appeal.
The clock matters more than the argument. You have 28 days to appeal at all, and if you want the discounted rate you have to get the informal challenge in within 14 days. Appeal on day 20 and win nothing, and you pay full price even if the rejection arrives later. If the informal challenge is refused and you did appeal inside 14 days, you get a further 14 days at the reduced amount.
After that it goes to a Notice to Owner, then a formal representation, then the independent Traffic Penalty Tribunal, which is free. Once a Charge Certificate is issued the right of appeal is gone and the amount goes up. The council’s parking tickets and bus lane fines page has the full sequence.
Warrington also issues tickets for driving in bus lanes, through the same process.
Paying
Every paid council car park except Time Square multi storey takes cash at the machine or the RingGo app. Time Square is different: you pay at machines on the way back to your car, by cash or card, rather than in advance. Contract parking is available at Time Square, Academy Way, the Town Hall and Warrington West if you park regularly.
More Warrington local information: bin collection days, council tax bands by parish, roadworks and travel and trains to London.
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