On-street parking is free before 1pm on Sundays on Micklegate, Priory Street and Lawrence Street. Full 2026 car park tariffs, plus the £45 Minster Badge.
York is one of the most expensive cities in the north to leave a car in, and the tariffs went up again in April 2026. An hour in a central car park is now £5.00, and a full day is £23.20. But the price you pay depends on which of four different tariff regimes you land in, and one of them still gives you free parking on a Sunday morning within a five minute walk of the bar walls. This page sets out all four, with the council’s own figures.
The four price regimes, and how to spot which you are in
Charges are lower Sunday to Thursday and higher on Fridays, Saturdays and event days. Every figure below is from the council’s own car park records, checked on 15 August 2026.
Long stay: Foss Bank, Marygate, Monk Bar, Nunnery Lane, St George’s Field, Union Terrace
These are the ones with a flat all-day price, so they are the cheap option if you are staying past five hours (Marygate, Nunnery Lane).
| Stay | Sun to Thu | Fri, Sat, events | Minster Badge, Sun to Thu |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 1 hour | £5.00 | £5.50 | £3.50 |
| Up to 2 hours | £10.00 | £10.90 | £7.00 |
| Up to 3 hours | £11.50 | £13.90 | £8.10 |
| Up to 4 hours | £15.30 | £18.00 | £10.70 |
| Up to 5 hours | £19.20 | £22.10 | £13.40 |
| All day | £23.20 | £25.00 | £16.20 |
| Evening, 6pm to 8am | £4.00 | £4.80 | £2.00 |
Marygate has 329 spaces, 11 Blue Badge bays (outside the car park itself) and 16 fast EV sockets. Nunnery Lane has 139 spaces, 12 Blue Badge bays, 12 fast sockets and a rapid charger. Neither takes cash: it is card, Pay By Phone, season ticket or permit.
Central: Bootham Row, Castle, Coppergate, Esplanade
The ladder is identical up to five hours, then it keeps climbing rather than capping. Beyond five hours you pay £3.80 for each additional hour Sunday to Thursday, and £4.10 on Fridays, Saturdays and event days (Castle car park). There is no maximum stay, but there is also no all-day ceiling, so a long day in Castle costs more than the same day in Marygate. Castle has 268 spaces and 30 Blue Badge bays, the largest accessible provision of any council car park in the city.
Suburban: Bishopthorpe Road, East Parade, Rowntree Park
A flat £3.00 an hour, £2.10 with a Minster Badge, and a three hour maximum stay (Rowntree Park). Rowntree Park charges 8.00am to 4.30pm and closes at dusk, with 50 standard bays and 2 Blue Badge bays. These are the ones locals use for a swim, a school run or an hour in Bishy Road, and at a third of the central price they are worth the walk if you are heading for the south of the city.
Evening only: Fossgate, St Deny’s Road, Stonebow
Free by day, charged in the evening at £4.00 Sunday to Thursday and £4.80 on Fridays, Saturdays and event days (Gazette & Herald on the 2026/27 charges).
Free parking, and the trap that comes with it
The genuine free window in York is on-street, and it is narrow.
Micklegate, Priory Street and Lawrence Street charge 8.00am to 6.00pm Monday to Saturday, but only 1.00pm to 6.00pm on Sundays. The council states it directly: “Parking is free on Sundays, from 8.00am to 1.00pm” (City of York Council). Daytime charges on those three streets run £3.00 to £9.00, matching the suburban rate rather than the £5.00 an hour everywhere else. Micklegate runs from the bar down to Ouse Bridge and the city centre shops, so for a Sunday morning it is the best value parking in central York.
Now the traps, all from the same council page:
- The Sunday free window is those three streets only. Everywhere else on street, charging starts at 8.00am seven days a week. A bay that looks identical 200 metres away will charge you from eight in the morning on a Sunday.
- You cannot stay more than two hours before 3.00pm. On standard on-street bays, “parking for over 2 hours is only allowed after 3.00pm”. A three hour tariff exists but you cannot buy it at eleven in the morning.
- Evening is not free. On-street charging runs to 11.59pm, and council car parks charge £4.00 from 6.00pm. Any claim that York parking is free after 6pm is wrong.
- You must pay by phone. On-street is Pay By Phone only at every location, with a 15p service fee on top, and 20p if you want a text alert.
The Minster Badge: £45, and it pays for itself in nine hours
If you live in York, this is the single biggest lever on your parking costs. The Minster Badge is a digital resident permit that costs £45 and lasts two years (City of York Council). It cuts the standard charge by roughly 30% during the day and 50% in the evening, which is why an hour at Marygate drops from £5.00 to £3.50 and an evening from £4.00 to £2.00.
Work the sums and the case is obvious. The badge saves £1.50 on a single hour in a central car park, so nine hours of parking across two years clears the cost. On an all-day stay the saving is £7.00 a time. It is a digital permit, tied to a vehicle, and it needs a valid email address to issue. It also lets electric vehicles park free between 6.00pm and 8.00am while charging at a fast chargepoint.
Resident and visitor permits
ResPark charges for 2026/27, set in the budget approved on 12 February 2026 and in force from April (Gazette & Herald):
| Permit | Standard | Discounted | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| First | £115.00 | £92.00 | £190.00 |
| Second | £277.00 | £221.60 | £411.00 |
| Third | £577.50 | £462.00 | £823.00 |
The premium rate applies to larger or higher emission vehicles. Note the shape of it: the second car costs nearly two and a half times the first, and the third five times. That is deliberate, and it is the part households planning a second car tend to discover late. First permits were held flat this year; second and third permits went up.
For visitors, each household gets an allocation of 200 daily visitor permits a year (City of York Council), charged at £1.45 each, or 35p at the concessionary rate, both unchanged this year.
If you commute in and park all week, season tickets run at £103 a week, £250 a month or £1,850 a year, with discounted rates of £82, £200 and £1,480.
Blue Badge parking
Blue Badge holders park free in on-street pay and display bays during normal charging hours, and can also use resident parking bays and yellow lines (City of York Council). At Nunnery Lane the council record confirms free parking in any bay, not just the marked ones.
The most useful entitlement is the footstreets one. York closes its main shopping streets to vehicles between 10.30am and 5.00pm, seven days a week, and Shambles and Stonegate at all times (footstreets). Blue Badge holders driving or being dropped off, taxis included, have access at any time, including during those restricted hours, on showing a valid badge to the barrier staff at Goodramgate or Blake Street. You must display a time card alongside the badge whatever the restriction.
Dedicated bays where we could confirm the count: Castle 30, Nunnery Lane 12, Marygate 11 (sited outside the car park). The council also runs an interactive Blue Badge parking map, and the Blue Badge team is on 01904 552522.
The station, and the case for not driving in at all
York station’s long stay car park has been closed since March 2025 while Network Rail builds a multi-storey in its place. Blue Badge parking has moved to the short stay car park, and commuters are pointed at the APCOA car park on Leeman Road or the council car parks. Full detail is on our roadworks and travel page.
For a day in the city, the arithmetic usually favours park and ride: a standard return is £4.00 from six sites on the ring road, against £23.20 for a day in a council car park. Up to three children aged 16 or under travel free with an adult. The roadworks and travel page has the sites, the bus numbers and the fares.
Christmas Market pricing: the same car parks cost more
This is the recurring one to diary. During the 2025 Christmas Market, from 13 November to 21 December, the council applied the higher Friday and Saturday rates on Sundays to Thursdays as well, at ten car parks: Bootham Row, Castle, Coppergate, Esplanade, Foss Bank, Marygate, Monk Bar, Nunnery Lane, St George’s Field and Union Terrace. Prices reverted on 22 December. Bishopthorpe Road, East Parade and Rowntree Park were left at their normal rates (City of York Council).
The 2026 market runs 12 November to 21 December. The council confirms its market parking arrangements each autumn, so treat the 2025 pattern as the likely shape rather than a booked fact, and check before you travel. The practical read: in those six weeks the suburban car parks are the only ones that stay cheap.
The short version
- Central and long-stay car parks: £5.00 an hour, £23.20 all day, £4.00 evening.
- Suburban car parks: £3.00 an hour, three hours maximum.
- Micklegate, Priory Street and Lawrence Street: free on Sundays until 1.00pm.
- Everywhere else on street: charged from 8.00am seven days, and over two hours only after 3.00pm.
- Minster Badge: £45 for two years, and it pays for itself in nine hours of parking.
- Blue Badge: free on street, and through the footstreet barriers at any hour.
- Park and ride is £4.00 return, against £23.20 for a day’s parking.
Also useful: York bin collection days, council tax bands and roadworks and travel.
Sources
- City of York Council: council car parks directory, Marygate, Nunnery Lane, Castle and Rowntree Park
- On-street parking charges and hours
- Minster Badge permit cost
- Household visitor parking permits and parking permits index
- Blue Badge parking in York and footstreets
- Christmas parking arrangements confirmed
- Gazette & Herald: 2026/27 parking charges and 2026/27 ResPark permit costs
Tariffs checked against the council’s own car park records on 15 August 2026. Charges change each April and event day pricing is set separately; check the linked pages before you travel.
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