Parking in Stafford: £4.80 All Day, £12.50 at the Station

Two numbers explain most of the parking decisions people make in Stafford. A full day in the council’s long stay car park on Doxey Road is under £5. A full day at the railway station is £12.50.

The second number matters because Stafford is a commuter town with a fast line to London and Manchester, and the station car parks are run by Avanti West Coast, not the borough.

Here is every council tariff in Stafford and Stone, checked against both the individual car park pages and the council’s statutory Fees and Charges 2026/27. Those two sources do not entirely agree, and we say where.

What a full day costs

The spread is nearly £10 for the same day, inside the same town centre. The three most expensive council car parks, Civic Centre, South Walls and Riverside Undercroft, are priced as shopper car parks that happen to allow a long stay. They are not where you leave a car for work.

Where the council contradicts itself

Two of its published figures do not match.

Doxey Road long stay. The car park page advertises “1 Day - £4.80”. The next line on the same page is “2 Days - £9.40”, which is two lots of £4.70, and every longer stay follows at £4.70 a day: £14.10, £18.80, £23.50. The Fees and Charges 2026/27 schedule sets the daily rate at £4.70. The car park page is the one that is out on its own.

Band C season tickets. The Gaol Road and Doxey Road pages both quote £53 a month. The fees schedule sets the same ticket at £51.50. The three, six and twelve month prices agree at £144, £246 and £415.

Worth a call to 01785 619000 before you hand over a card.

Stafford town centre, hour by hour

Short stay, 8am to 6pm Monday to Saturday. Broad Street (145 spaces, ST16 2DB), Doxey Road short stay (615 spaces, ST16 2TF) and Victoria Park (47 spaces, ST16 2QP) all charge the same for the first four hours.

Broad Street and Doxey Road short stay stop there, at a four hour maximum. Victoria Park and The Windmill (44 spaces, ST16 2BH) carry on to £4.50 for five hours, £6.00 for six, £7.00 for eight and £8.20 for 24.

The expensive four. Civic Centre (57 spaces, ST16 3AQ), South Walls (25 spaces, ST16 3AQ) and Riverside Undercroft (180 spaces, ST16 3AA) run £1.30, £2.30, £3.40 and £4.40 for one to four hours, then £6.50, £8.70, £11.00 and £13.00. The Waterfront multi-storey (1,025 spaces, ST16 2HQ) starts the same but flattens out: £4.00 for four hours, £4.50 for five, £6.00 for six, £7.00 for eight and £9.20 to close.

So four hours at the Waterfront is £4.00 and four hours at the Civic Centre, across the road, is £4.40. Eight hours at the Waterfront is £7.00 against £11.00 at the Civic Centre.

Stafford Leisure Centre (108 spaces, ST16 3TA) is the cheap short stay: £1.50 for two hours, £2.50 for three, £3.00 for four, and free on Sundays. Charging runs 8am to 5.30pm, and the maximum stay is four hours.

Nothing in Stafford is free on a Sunday

This is the trap that costs people money. Every charging council car park in Stafford runs a flat £1.20 from 6pm to the next morning and a flat £1.20 all day Sunday. Sunday is not free, it is just cheap, and the ticket still has to be bought.

The only genuinely free days are Christmas Day, at every car park, and Sundays at Stafford Leisure Centre. Motorcycles are free everywhere, in a designated bay.

The evening rate has a condition worth reading twice: it applies only if you arrive after 6pm and leave before the morning cut-off. Park at 5.45pm and the hourly tariff applies to the whole stay.

Stone: two hours free, if you take a ticket

Stone is priced differently, and two of its car parks are free for short visits.

• Stone Canalside (47 spaces, ST15 8QW): free for up to two hours Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm, but you must display a ticket. Four hours is £1.50. Maximum stay four hours, no return within two. Free from 6pm, and free all day Saturday and Sunday with no ticket needed.
• Stone Riverside (38 spaces, ST15 8QW): the same free two hours and £1.50 for four, but no return within four hours. Free evenings and weekends.
• Stone Leisure Centre (89 spaces, ST15 8QW): £1.50 for two hours, £2.50 for three, £3.00 for four. Free on Sundays. Charging 8am to 5.30pm.
• Crown Street (89 spaces, ST15 8QN): 90p for an hour, £1.40 for two, £2.60 for four. Four hour maximum.
• Christchurch Way (82 spaces, ST15 8GG): 90p, £1.40, £2.60, then £3.80 all day.

Canalside and Riverside are both coin-only pay and display machines with no change given, so carry change even for the free ticket. Canalside also sells a weekly permit at £15, by phone only, on car park code 809358.

Stone’s evening and Sunday charge at Crown Street and Christchurch Way is the same £1.20 as Stafford.

On-street parking is the county’s, not the borough’s

Staffordshire County Council runs on-street pay and display, and it lists only two locations in Stafford on its on-street parking page:

• Clarke Street: £1.50 for an hour, £2.50 for two.
• Brunswick Terrace: £1.00 for two hours, £3.00 for four and £4.00 for nine, Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm. Saturday 8am to noon, two hours £1.00 and four hours £3.00.

Nine hours at Brunswick Terrace for £4.00 undercuts every council car park in Stafford. The county publishes no operating hours for Clarke Street.

Resident permit schemes are also the county’s. It publishes no fixed price, saying the annual charge is “about £56” plus a one-off household joining fee that is “normally about £50, although it could be higher”. Each household normally gets one permit, with a second only where demand allows. Blue badge holders and approved carers pay nothing, and pensioners get 50%. No refunds for part years.

Blue badges

The borough’s rules split three ways, which the council sets out on its blue badge page.

• Short and long stay car parks: free, up to the maximum stay allowed.
• Variable stay car parks: free for four hours only, then the advertised charge applies.
• Waterfront multi-storey and Riverside Undercroft: badge holders pay the full rate, like everyone else.

Stone Canalside and Stone Riverside are both free to badge holders with a valid permit displayed. The badge must show the front face with the expiry date, issuing authority and wheelchair symbol. The clock is only needed on yellow lines or in time-limited bays.

Season tickets

Band A covers levels 7 to 14 of the Waterfront only, controlled by number plate recognition. Park outside the permit area and you are charged the daily rate. Two registrations can be held against one ticket, but only one car may use it at a time.

Changing the registration on any season ticket costs £13, and paying by anything other than a card adds a 10% administration fee. Applications go through 01785 619000, option 6, and take two full working days.

Set against the station’s own season prices of £132 a month and £1,200 a year, a Band B ticket at £62 a month or £490 a year is less than half the cost.

The station

Stafford station has two Avanti West Coast car parks: the multi-storey with 451 spaces and a second with 68. Both are open 24 hours every day including bank holidays. Both charge:

• £12.50 a day
• £132.00 a month
• £374.00 for three months
• £1,200.00 a year

There are 126 cycle spaces, 84 by platform 1 and 42 in the multi-storey, all sheltered and under CCTV.

Paying, and getting fined

Machines take coins, cards and contactless, and give no change. Several are coin-only: both free Stone car parks, Stafford Leisure Centre and Stone Leisure Centre.

Phone and app payment is through PayByPhone, using the code on the signs. It is not free: the council adds 5p to every booking, and 10p for each text reminder if you opt in.

Penalty charge notices are set nationally and the borough issues them in its own car parks.

A £5 administration charge is added at the charge certificate stage. On-street tickets in Stafford come from Staffordshire County Council instead, and are paid and appealed through the county.

More local information

Check our roadworks and travel page before you drive in, particularly for the M6 junction 14 works. We also cover bin collection days, council tax bands, things to do in Stafford and trains to London.

Sources

• Fees and Charges 2026/2027, Stafford Borough Council, Environment Portfolio pages 31 to 35, for every tariff, the Doxey Road £4.70 day rate, all four season ticket bands, the £13 change of details fee, the 10% non-card fee and the penalty charge table.
• Stafford Borough Council car park pages, all checked 1 September 2026: Broad Street, Civic Centre, Doxey Road long stay, Doxey Road short stay, Gaol Road, North Walls, Riverside Undercroft, Stafford Leisure Centre, Victoria Park, Waterfront multi-storey and The Windmill, for space counts, postcodes, opening hours and the advertised tariffs.
• Stone car park pages: Canalside, Riverside, Crown Street, Christchurch Way and Stone Leisure Centre, for the free two hours, the ticket requirement and the £15 weekly permit.
• Blue Badge Holders, Cash Free Parking, Enforcement, Band A annual and Band A monthly season tickets, Stafford Borough Council.
• On-street pay and display parking locations and permit parking scheme information, Staffordshire County Council.
• Stafford station, West Midlands Railway, for the two Avanti West Coast car parks, their space counts, charges and cycle parking.