Eurothrift » Parking

There is free parking in Burgess Hill

Thrifty — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:19:14 +0000

We were not looking for free parking, but as we drove through Station Road in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, we found that there were free parking on the street with a one-hour time limit. It may not be excessively convenient for shopping at the Martlets mall, but it is convenient for the street shops from the railway to the town centre.

Hard to find free parking in Royal Tunbridge Wells

Thrifty — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:39:23 +0000

If you’re planning on visiting Tunbridge Wells, be aware that you’ll most likely need to pay for parking. Relative to smaller towns, bigger cities, like Tunbridge Wells, charge more for parking at their Pay and Display lots. In addition, these charges also apply on Sundays. Perhaps, it is because they have more shops open on Sundays; therefore, more people are likely to be out and about. Smaller towns have few shops that will open Sunday; therefore, their fee parking becomes free.

The most convenient parking lot is the Victoria Place shopping mall. There are other lots nearby but if you want convenience for the sake of shopping, Victoria Place is the place to be.

Free parking is available but you really have to drive around to find them. They are found around the neighborhoods, which can mean a long walk. The parking is also very tight, so you’ll need to be adept at parallel parking to squeeze in. The driving around can be wasteful on your petrol as well. Keep those considerations in mind.

Parking in Burgess Hill

Thrifty — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:02:43 +0000

We drove around Burgess Hill several times before discovering that there was a multi-tier Pay and Display car park adjoined to the Martlets. After parking there numerous times and shopping in the connecting mall, we accidentally stumbled into the Waitrose (a grocery store) parking lot meter. Seeing that their prices were cheaper than the mall lot, we decided to use it. Unfortunately, others had already discovered that it was cheaper, so the lot is usually quite full. Also Waitrose car park is an open lot so a little less desirable on wet and windy days if you have children or a full load of shopping.

Instead of paying ahead at a meter that does not dispense change, you get a button with a microchip embedded that records your entry time. When you are ready to leave, you insert the button into the pay machine and it calculates your charge. You pay and it gives change. More recently, we have driven in to the lot and discovered that the meter was broken. So we ended up parking for free a few times. We have yet to discover any free parking in Burgess Hill.

Haywards Heath available parking

Thrifty — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:17:10 +0000

When we are in Haywards Heath, we try to park in the little stretch of free parking on Church Street. However, spaces are not always available, so we have to drive around to find some. We quickly realized that we’re just wasting gas, which ends up being more than what we would have paid for parking. Therefore, we developed a plan. If we drive up and find no free parking on the street, we immediately go into the short-term Pay and Display lot.

Free parking in Haywards Heath is so limited. Church Street allows free parking for 2 hours but no return for 4 hours. South Street allows 30 minute parking with no return in one hour. The library has only 2 spaces, offering 1 hour of free parking with no return in one hour. Behind the library is the town council offices and there are some parking allotted to visitors to the council offices and a small lot for shared use of the library and council offices. These allow for 2 hours parking. If you don’t mind a long walk, there is a large parking lot at Sainsbury’s, down by the railway station. There is no sign of the lot being monitored in any way, but you’ll need to be careful not to abuse the privilege.

There are several Pay and Display parking lots in town, with one offering long stay parking (more than 4 hours). The long stay lot is near the hospital, on the southeast side of town. We usually use Orchard Mall parking lot since it is convenient to our destinations.

Parking in East Sussex

Thrifty — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:02:13 +0000

Although at first it seems we may have made a mistake in our choice of living quarters, living in East Sussex does have some benefits. First of all, we live in a small village hamlet (I guess) near Tunbridge Wells. It is also quite near to Crowborough, a smaller town than Tunbridge Wells, but it has what we need.

Unlike West Sussex, we have been in several towns in East Sussex where there are free parking lots. You can’t go anywhere in West Sussex without having to pay for parking or drive around looking for the rare free spots with time limits. In Uckfield, every lot was free. In Crowborough, there is a large lot that is free, right in the middle of town. You can walk across the street to the library and to the supermarket and take care of all your errands in one trip.

I miss the free parking in the US. Over there, if you go to church, there is a large parking lot. When you go the supermarket, there is a large parking lot. When you go to the library, there is a large parking lot. In England, buildings were put up years ago before parking lots were needed, so there are few parking spaces available. In order to provide travelers with parking, parking lots were built and fees were charged in order for towns to make some money. I suppose the higher council tax in some areas help pay for these parking lots.