Parking charges are set to rise in Watford after the borough council backed a raft of fee increases.

The decision made at a cabinet meeting yesterday (October 7) will also see costs swell for garden waste collections, car parking permits and sports facility hire.

Cllr Kennedy Rodrigues, portfolio holder for property, resources and customer service, said: “At a time where pressure on services is increasing in the public sector, and revenues decreasing, councils need to understand, address and effectively manage the way they charge for services.

“In general, a charge will be levied for all discretionary services on the principle of the user pays and the need to cover the costs of the service.”

Discretionary services are those provided by a council despite there not being a statutory requirement to do so.

Cllr Rodrigues said charges would be reduced for people on some income-related benefits, and added the “basis” for most increases had been the two per cent rate of inflation, as measured in April this year. 

If the plans are confirmed, parking charges will go up from January 1 at car parks including The Avenue, Town Hall, Longspring Charges and Harebreaks – though fees will be frozen at other car parks. On-street parking fees in St Albans Road are also set to rise.

At the Town Hall, for example, costs will go up by around 22 per cent – meaning three hours of parking would cost £3.30 rather than the current £2.70.

Parking permits for Watford’s Controlled Parking Zones are also set to cost more from June 2025, with a first permit going up from £31 to £34 and a second permit rising from £66 to £73. Vouchers allowing drivers to park 40 times for one hour each will go up from £8 to £10.

Garden waste collections, meanwhile, will go up from the standard cost of £55 a year to £60 from 1 September 2025. 

Cllr Rodrigues said the income received for collecting waste was “not sufficient to cover the costs of the service”, adding: “We need to remember that not all households in Watford have gardens… this increase reflects the policy of the user pays.”

Some businesses will also be subject to higher fees, with food hygiene re-inspections going up from £195 to £240. 

Cllr Rodrigues said it was “reasonable … as businesses get a commercial advantage from better ratings”.

Skin piercing businesses will face an increase too – up from £194 to £245 for a premises licence and up from £61 to £83 for each operator licence. 

The fee increases are expected to bring in an additional £58,000 income for the council in 2025/26 – though this is short of the £75,000 expected as part of the authority’s medium-term financial strategy. 

The proposed changes still need to be signed off by full council at their meeting on Tuesday, October 15.