Parking in Broadland: All 8 Council Car Parks Are Free

Broadland District Council owns eight car parks and charges for none of them. Checked again on 26 August 2026, every single entry in the council’s own car park directory still reads “Free”.

That is unusual, and it is not guaranteed to last. A Parking Management Plan that would put pay and display machines in three of them has been sitting in the council’s papers since October 2024. Nothing has been switched on yet. The detail is further down.

The eight council car parks

Every figure above comes from the individual car park pages in the council’s car park directory. The council does not publish a space count for Buxton, Coltishall or South Walsham. It describes the whole set as “over 300 spaces” across the eight sites, and the five published counts add up to 310.

Two of those catches are the ones that catch people out. Brundall’s car park on The Street is capped at two hours, so it is no good for a day on the river. Coltishall’s Station Road car park is signed for visitors only, which rules out residents leaving a second car there.

Marked disabled bays exist at Acle, at Aylsham’s Burgh Road car park (two) and at Brundall (two). The council does not publish bay counts for the other sites.

What you cannot bring in

The council restricts its car parks to vehicles under 3.5 tonnes, 5.5 metres long and 2 metres high, and bars anything towing a trailer, caravan or other wheeled object. It also states plainly that it does not grit or treat car park surfaces in cold weather (car parks information).

Pay and display is a South Norfolk thing, not a Broadland one

Broadland and South Norfolk share staff, a website and a parking inbox, so it is easy to read a charge on one page and assume it applies here. It does not.

The council’s own wording is that pay and display “is in operation in Diss, Wymondham and Loddon”, all three of which are in South Norfolk. The season tickets, resident permits and the extra hour of free Christmas parking that appear on the shared site are South Norfolk schemes too. Broadland has no permit scheme, because it has nothing to charge for.

If you get a ticket in a South Norfolk car park, it is handled by the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk on their behalf. On-street enforcement across Broadland is run by the Norfolk Parking Partnership, delegated from Norfolk County Council, to which Broadland pays about £10,000 a year.

The £5 all-day tariff that has not happened

In October 2024 officers took a Parking Management Plan to Broadland’s Economic Success Policy Development Panel. It proposed charging, for the first time, at the three busiest car parks: Reepham Station Road, Aylsham Burgh Road and Aylsham Butts Land, together 185 spaces.

The proposed tariff, Monday to Saturday:

• first hour free
• 1 to 3 hours £2.00
• 3 to 4 hours £3.00
• all day £5.00

A cheaper second tariff was also tabled for lower demand sites: first hour free, all day £2.00. The report put gross revenue at £79,125 a year across the three car parks, net income of £17,229 in year one and £33,125 a year after that, against expected resurfacing costs of £300,000 to £400,000 across the council’s sites over ten years. Permits would have been capped at half the spaces in any one car park, and Blue Badge holders would still park free in a marked disabled bay (Review of Car Parking in Broadland and its Parking Management Plan appendix, Economic Success Policy Development Panel, 21 October 2024).

The report said the changes were intended for 2025/26 and expected to be in place “by Q4 2025/26”, which ended on 31 March 2026. Charging needs a Traffic Regulation Order, which the report itself estimated would take six to nine months and be approved by Norfolk County Council.

Nearly five months past that deadline, all three car parks are still listed as free. We have found no traffic order, no tariff board and no council announcement introducing charges. Anyone who has read that the plan was agreed should note that agreeing a plan and making an order are two different steps, and the second one has not visibly happened.

One inconsistency worth flagging if you are counting spaces: the 2024 appendix records Butts Land as 70 spaces, while the live car park page says 58.

Blue Badge

There is no charge for parking in a designated disabled bay if a valid Blue Badge is displayed, which in Broadland is academic since nothing is charged anyway. It matters if you cross into South Norfolk.

Blue Badges themselves are issued by Norfolk County Council, not by Broadland (disabled parking).

Park and ride: two of the six sites are in Broadland

Most Broadland residents’ real parking question is about Norwich, not about Aylsham. Two of the city’s six park and ride sites sit inside this district, and between them they hold 1,313 cars, more than four times the 310 spaces the council publishes across its own eight car parks.

Both have toilets, a disabled toilet and baby changing. Sprowston also has a café. The ride into the city takes 12 to 20 minutes from either.

Parking is free to park and ride users. You pay for the bus, not the space, and the fares are the same at every site:

The group ticket came down to £5 in March 2026. Sprowston is run by First Bus, Postwick by Central Connect.

Sites are open seven days a week, typically from half an hour before the first bus to half an hour after the last, and all hold the Park Mark Safer Parking award. The conditions are worth reading before you leave a vehicle:

• No overnight parking and no camping. Exit barriers rise on slow approach if you come back after the buses have stopped, but leaving the car there overnight risks a fine.
• Nothing over 7.5 tonnes, and no trailers or touring caravans.
• A vehicle in a disabled bay must display a valid disabled clock on the dashboard.
• Motorhomes are allowed during the day at Postwick only, provided through routes are kept clear.
• Cycle shelters at every site except Postwick, which has loops only.
• You may not park without using the service or displaying a valid permit.

Electric vehicle charging is installed at the Airport and Harford sites, neither of which is in Broadland (Norwich park and ride and park and ride sites, Norfolk County Council).

On-street parking

Broadland District Council has no on-street parking scheme of its own. On-street restrictions across the district belong to Norfolk County Council and are enforced by the Norfolk Parking Partnership, and the resident and visitor permit schemes on the shared council website are all South Norfolk ones.

The council’s parking team can be reached at parking@southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk or on 01508 533920.

Also on Broads News

• Broadland bin collection days, including the bank holiday changes
• Broadland council tax bands, the full A to H table by parish
• Broadland roadworks and travel, for what is shut this week