East Grinstead's resident permit is now £68 in Zone A and £40 in Zone B, and visitor permits are up 17%. Every new price, and what changed overnight.
Parking permits in East Grinstead went up on 1 October. A first resident permit in Zone A now costs £68 a year, up from £63. In Zone B it is £40, up from £37.
Visitor permits rose fastest. A two-hour visitor permit is now 70p, up from 60p, a rise of about 17%. Most resident permits went up by between 5% and 9%.
Mid Sussex District Council, which runs the zones for the county council, published the new prices on its parking permits page on 1 October. The old prices are on the archived copy of the same page, last updated in October 2025.
The quick answer
- First resident permit, annual: £68 in Zone A (was £63), £40 in Zone B (was £37).
- Second resident permit, annual: £136 in Zone A (was £126), £80 in Zone B (was £74).
- Visitor permit, two hours: 70p in both zones (was 60p).
- Daily visitor permit, Zone A: £2.80 (was £2.40).
- Non-resident permit, annual: £410 in Zone A (was £380), £250 in Zone B (was £230).
- Blue badge holders: a first permit is still free.
Every price, old and new
| Permit | Zone A was | Zone A now | Zone B was | Zone B now |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First permit, annual | £63 | £68 | £37 | £40 |
| Second permit, annual | £126 | £136 | £74 | £80 |
| First permit, six months | £34 | £36 | £20 | £21 |
| Second permit, six months | £67 | £72 | £39 | £42 |
| First low emission permit, annual | £48 | £51 | £28 | £30 |
| Second low emission permit, annual | £87 | £102 | £56 | £60 |
| First low emission permit, six months | £26 | £27 | £15 | £16 |
| Second low emission permit, six months | £51 | £54 | £30 | £32 |
| Non-resident, annual | £380 | £410 | £230 | £250 |
| Non-resident, six months | £200 | £216 | £121 | £132 |
| Non-resident low emission, annual | £285 | £308 | £173 | £188 |
| Non-resident low emission, six months | £150 | £162 | see below | £99 |
| Visitor, two hours | 60p | 70p | 60p | 70p |
| Daily visitor | £2.40 | £2.80 | not sold | not sold |
| Weekly visitor | £14.40 | £16.80 | not sold | not sold |
Sources: Mid Sussex District Council parking permits page, updated 1 October 2026, and the archived version showing the charges from October 2025.
Who is hit hardest
People with visitors. Every visitor permit went up by the same 17%: 60p to 70p, £2.40 to £2.80, and £14.40 to £16.80. A household that buys a weekly visitor permit for a fortnight’s stay now pays £33.60 rather than £28.80.
Two-car households in Zone A with a low emission vehicle. The second low emission annual permit rose from £87 to £102, also about 17%. The new price is exactly double the new first low emission permit, £51. Under the old table the second permit was cheaper than double the first.
Commuters and workers on non-resident permits. The Zone A permit rose by £30 to £410, and the Zone B one by £20 to £250. Non-resident permits are the most expensive on the list, so they carry the biggest cash rise.
A first resident permit went up by £5 in Zone A and £3 in Zone B. For a single-car household with few visitors, the change is small.
One error has been fixed
The council’s old table priced a six-month low emission non-resident permit in Zone B at £941, more than four times the annual permit in the same zone. We flagged it as a typing error on our parking in Mid Sussex page in August. The new table gives £99, which sits where it should against the £188 annual price.
How the rise was made
The rise comes from West Sussex County Council, which owns the on-street parking. It varied the charges in the Mid Sussex parking order under section 46A of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. That route needs only a newspaper notice. There is no consultation and no objection period.
The county’s notice of 10 September said permit charges in the East Grinstead Controlled Parking Zone would change from 1 October 2026. It told readers to download a PDF to see the new charges. No PDF was attached to the notice, and none had appeared by 2 October.
So the district council’s permits page is the first place the new prices have been published. It was updated on 1 October, the day they took effect.
The rise matches what the county did elsewhere on the same date. Its Horsham notice, which did carry a rate card, put the Horsham first resident permit up from £63 to £68 and the non-resident permit from £380 to £410, the same figures as Zone A here.
What it means for you
- If your permit is due for renewal, budget for the new price. The council’s page does not say whether permits bought before 1 October keep the old price until they expire; ask the parking team if you are unsure.
- If you have visitors often, the weekly permit is still cheaper than buying daily ones: £16.80 against £19.60 for seven days at £2.80. Weekly and daily permits are sold for Zone A only.
- Zone A is still closed to new additional permits. The council stopped issuing them because the zone is close to capacity. First permits and existing second permits are not affected.
- Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath have no resident permit scheme, so nothing changes there.
The full picture of car park charges, season tickets and the two East Grinstead zones is on our parking in Mid Sussex page, which now carries the new prices.
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