Which Watford town centre car parks are busiest and when?

Traffic specialists Systra carried out analysis of how motorists use Atria Kings, Atria Queens, Atria Palace, Atria Charter, Wellstones, CitiPark Church, CitiPark Gade, and CitiPark Sutton car parks - for Watford Borough Council to use when making decisions.

The figures - recorded by CitiPark transaction data and ANPR cameras for non-CitiPark locations - includes figures for a Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday without a Watford FC home fixture, and a Saturday with a game at Vicarage Road.

See some of the headline figures below:

Atria Kings (773 capacity) and Queens (660 capacity)

Atria Watford. (Image: Atria Watford) These car parks, taken together in the data, only passed the 80 per cent occupancy threshold used to define high occupancy for an hour and a half (2.15pm to 3.45pm on the day Watford FC were playing).

They were busiest at around the same time on the other Saturday but just over 10 per cent less busy against matchday.

On weekdays they peaked at just over 40 per cent occupancy at around 12pm.

Atria Charter (741 capacity) and Palace (599 capacity)

These car parks, also taken together, peaked at more than 90 per cent occupancy on matchday - above the 80 per cent threshold for around four hours in the afternoon.

Occupancy went above 70 per cent between around 2.30pm and 4.30pm on the other Saturday but during weekdays never passed 40 per cent with a similar trend to Kings and Queens.

Wellstones (98 capacity)

A developer was granted permission to build flats on top of Wellstones at appeal, against a Watford Borough Council decision to block this, earlier this year. This smaller car park reached capacity on both Saturdays, with cars waiting for spaces, parking outside of bays, or leaving without parking, at times. This was worse on matchday but there was not a huge discrepancy.

Eleven per cent of vehicles stayed for less than five minutes, with some using it as a drop-off/pic-up location for the High Street.

On matchday, it was above capacity between around 11.45pm and 5.45pm. It only briefly reached capacity on a weekday at around 2pm on the Wednesday but was above the threshold between at least 12pm and 3pm every day.

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CitiPark note:

CitiPark transaction data does not include season ticket parking, meaning occupancy may be underestimated.

On weekdays it is estimated that real occupancy may be twice as high as the data shows and on Saturdays it may be 1.3 times the figure given. This uplift was based on on-site observations.

CitiPark Church (568 capacity)

CitiPark Church. (Image: Google Maps) CitiPark Church bucked the trend by having little variation between matchday parking and parking on the other Saturday. In either case it’s occupancy never passed 70 per cent. (89 per cent adjusted for the season ticket uplift)

Occupancy stayed pretty steady at its peak between 60 and 70 per cent from 1pm to 4pm.

On the Tuesday it peaked at 35 per cent at around 1pm.

CitiPark Gade (641 capacity)

CitiPark Gade occupancy was lower than Church on all four days and never passed 50 per cent. (61 per cent peak with adjusted figures)

It came close at around 3pm on matchday but otherwise never passed 30 per cent on the other Saturday or 20 per cent on the weekdays.

CitiPark Sutton

The data was used to show that parking could cope if Sutton is sold for redevelopment. (Image: Google Street View) CitiPark Sutton had the lowest occupancy rate of any car park studied. It peaked at 40 per cent on matchday but only reached 19 per cent on the other Saturday. (52 per cent and 25 per cent with adjusted figures)

Weekdays were somewhere in between, remaining steady between 20 and 30 per cent from 9am to 2.30pm at their peak on both days.