The Avenue and Braccan Walk charge £2.10 for an hour and give Blue Badge holders no discount. Another 39 council car parks are free. Tariffs, permits, fines.
Bracknell Forest runs 48 car parks and charges at eight of them. Everything outside the town centre, including every shopping parade, park and country site, is free.
Six of the eight are in the town centre: The Avenue, Braccan Walk, Weather Way, Behind Banks, Albert Road and Wick Hill. The Look Out and Coral Reef have their own arrangements. Every figure below comes from the council’s own car park directory and was checked on 31 August 2026.
The trap: no Blue Badge concession in the paying car parks
Bracknell Forest states it plainly on each town centre car park page and again on its parking for disabled people page:
There are no exemptions or free concessions for Blue Badge holders in any of our charging car parks.
The council still provides Blue Badge bays inside those car parks, 68 of them in The Avenue alone. It just charges the normal rate for them.
There are exceptions, and they are worth knowing:
- The Look Out does not charge Blue Badge holders at all, provided the badge is displayed on the dashboard.
- Coral Reef lets Blue Badge holders use its accessible bays free.
- There are free on-street disabled bays: two at Time Square and three by the police station.
- A Blue Badge holder living in a resident parking zone gets their permit free.
Bank and public holidays are charged at normal rates in all six town centre car parks. There is no free day.
Town centre tariffs
The Avenue, Braccan Walk and Weather Way share one tariff. The Avenue and Braccan Walk are pay on foot with number plate recognition at the barrier; you pay at a machine before you go back to the car.
| Length of stay | The Avenue, Braccan Walk, Weather Way |
|---|---|
| Up to 1 hour | £2.10 |
| 1 to 2 hours | £3.80 |
| 2 to 3 hours | £4.80 |
| 3 to 4 hours | £5.70 |
| 4 to 5 hours | £7.50 |
| 5 to 6 hours | £8.50 |
| 6 to 7 hours | £9.40 |
| 7 to 8 hours | £10.60 |
| Over 8 hours | £11.80 |
| Lost ticket | £12.60 |
There is a separate nightly charge of £2.30 from 6pm to 6am. If you arrive after 6pm you pay only that. If you were already parked and stay past 6pm, it is added to whatever you already owe.
The other three are pay and display:
| Car park | Tariff |
|---|---|
| Albert Road | £2.40 up to 1 hour, £8.20 for 1 to 10 hours |
| Wick Hill | £2.40 up to 1 hour, £6.90 for 1 to 10 hours |
| Behind Banks | £1.70 for the 40 minute maximum stay, 6am to 6pm, seven days |
| Behind Banks | £2.30 overnight, 6pm to 6am, seven days |
Behind Banks caps you at 40 minutes, which is easy to miss on The Ring. It is the only short stay car park in the town centre.
Sizes, so you know where to aim on a busy Saturday: The Avenue has 1,194 spaces across six floors with a 2 metre height barrier, Braccan Walk 356 with the same barrier, Albert Road 194, Wick Hill 124 and Weather Way 21. Weather Way is a surface car park next to The Avenue and has no height restriction, which matters if you drive a van or a roof box.
Motorcycles park free at Braccan Walk. At The Avenue they pay the car rate.
Princess Square car park is not a council car park. It is managed by The Lexicon, and its tariff is set separately.
The Look Out and Coral Reef
The Look Out has about 300 spaces and its own tariff:
- First 10 minutes free
- Up to 4 hours: £4
- All day: £7.90
Pay by phone works there, location number 804048. Coins are accepted but not notes, and American Express is not accepted.
If you use it regularly, an off-peak annual permit costs £80 for Bracknell Forest residents and £174 for everyone else. It is valid Monday to Friday in school term time only, 7am to 6pm from October to March and 7am to 8.30pm from April to September. It is a digital permit tied to one registration.
Coral Reef charges £5.80 for 5 hours and £8.30 all day for parking only. If you have booked a swim online, parking is already in the booking fee and you just give your registration at reception.
The free car parks
Thirty-nine council car parks charge nothing. They are:
Bracknell: Leppington and Birch Hill Shopping Centre (89 spaces each), William Twigg at Great Hollands Square (63), The Parks at Nicholson Park (59), Great Hollands Shopping Centre (54), Lily Hill Park Running Horse (56), Lily Hill Park North (48), Crown Wood Shopping Centre (48), Swift Fields (39 spaces plus 5 overflow), Bywood (30), Netherton (27), The Square at Harmans Water (24), Bay Road South (21), Wildridings Square (17), Rectory Row (15) and Bay Road (10).
Crowthorne and Buckler’s Park: Heath Hill Road (32), Wellington Business Park (19), New Road (18), Napier Road (7), Buckler’s Forest greenspace (32) and Chaucer Woods (5).
Sandhurst and Owlsmoor: The Broadway (32), Shepherd Meadows (29), Yeovil Road (26), Wildmoor Heath (15), Ambarrow Court (15), Horseshoe Lake, Victoria Road Owlsmoor (8) and York Way (5).
Binfield, Warfield and Winkfield: Farley Wood Centre (66) and its sports pitch car park (16), Westmorland Park (44), Pope’s Meadow (28), Longhill Park (20), Cabbage Hill (18), Larks Hill (15), Savernake Park (12) and Englemere Pond (12).
Several of the shopping parade car parks carry a two hour maximum stay: Birch Hill, Great Hollands, Heath Hill Road, Napier Road and New Road. Wellington Business Park is two hours Monday to Saturday between 8am and 6pm, and unrestricted outside those hours.
High Street car park is gone. It closed on 31 October after surveyors found the structure corroding beyond repair, and demolition was approved this year. We covered that decision in our report on the High Street car park demolition.
Resident permits, and the Sunday charge nobody expects
The council operates a resident parking scheme only in the streets around Bracknell town centre, introduced to protect them from town centre redevelopment pressure. There are no plans for further zones anywhere else in the borough.
The hours are the part that catches people out. Permits are needed:
- 8am to 6pm Monday to Saturday, or 8pm in some zones
- 10am to 4pm on Sundays
A civil enforcement officer will issue a penalty charge notice to any car in a zone without a valid permit inside those hours, Sunday afternoons included.
Zone A and the northern part of Zone B have been removed from the scheme. Zones B (east), D (Deepfield Road), E (Goodways Drive) and F (Old Bracknell Lane) remain, with maps on the council’s resident parking scheme page.
Annual permit prices:
| Permit | Cost per year |
|---|---|
| 1st resident or business permit | £50 |
| 2nd permit | £65 |
| 3rd permit | £85 |
| 4th permit | £105 |
| 5th permit | £125 |
| Blue Badge holder, 1 per badge holder | Free |
| Motorcycle | Free |
| 4 hour reusable visitor permit, 1 per household | £50 |
| 50 x 4 hour single use visitor scratch cards | £40 |
| 50 x 24 hour single use visitor scratch cards | £65 |
| Tradesperson, 4 hour reusable, all zones | £85 |
| Healthcare provider | £50 |
Five permits per property is the maximum. Blue Badge and motorcycle permits are free but still count towards that five. Only scratch cards carrying the NSL logo are valid; any other logo is not.
Season tickets are a separate product for the paying car parks. Braccan Walk is £135 a month for a five day ticket, £145 for seven days, £1,305 or £1,540 for the year, and £1,170 a year for people who live in the town centre and can prove it. Albert Road is £95 a month for seven days and Wick Hill £48 a month for five. The Avenue does not offer them.
Penalty charge notices
Fines are set nationally, and Bracknell Forest applies the standard rates:
- Off street, in a car park: £50, or £25 if you pay within 14 days
- On street: £70, or £35 if you pay within 14 days
Civil enforcement officers here are employed by NSL Ltd, not the council, and wear blue uniforms with a badge number. The council states that they receive no incentive to issue a given number of tickets.
The volume is rising sharply. The council’s own published figures show 6,427 penalty charge notices issued in 2024/25, against 4,006 in 2022/23 and 3,302 in 2020/21. Cancellations ran at 1,197 last year, roughly one in five.
Once you pay, the case is closed and you cannot challenge it.
Station parking
Bracknell station has 214 spaces in two car parks, with two accessible bays. The main car park holds 200 spaces and the Premium car park 14. Charges, per National Rail:
| Main car park | Premium car park | |
|---|---|---|
| Daily | £5.60 | £10 |
| Off-peak, from 12 noon Mon to Fri | £2.80 | £5 |
| Saturday and Sunday | £2.80 | £5 |
| Bank holiday | £2.80 | £5 |
| Weekly | £22.30 | not offered |
| Monthly | £78 | not offered |
| Annual | £780 | not offered |
The hourly rate of £1 is available from noon and only through RingGo, code 77479. The Premium car park is code 77492. Registered Blue Badge holders park free in the main car park, but not in the Premium one, where National Rail records parking as chargeable for all vehicles.
Crowthorne station has 42 spaces and one accessible bay. National Rail publishes no tariff for it.
National Rail lists no station car park at all for Martins Heron or for Sandhurst (Berks). Both are worth checking on the ground before you rely on them for a commute.
More Bracknell information
Live road closures and the resurfacing programme are on our Bracknell roadworks and travel page. Bin days, garden waste charges and the tip are on our Bracknell bin collection page, and this year’s charges by band are on our Bracknell council tax page.
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