A full day in Central car park is £24.40. In St James it is £6.80. Every Farnham tariff for 2026/27, the free Sundays, permits, Blue Badge and the station rate.
Park all day in Central car park and it costs £24.40. Walk eight minutes to St James and the same day costs £6.80. Both are Waverley Borough Council car parks, both are in Farnham, and the council publishes each tariff on its own separate page, so almost nobody compares them.
This page puts all ten Farnham car parks in one table, then covers the parts that catch people out: bank holidays are charged but Sundays are not, evening charges start at 5.30pm in three car parks, and Blue Badge parking changed across the whole borough on 13 April 2026.
The quick answer
- Cheapest full day: St James, Memorial Hall or any of the three Riverside car parks, £6.80.
- Dearest full day: Central or Lower Hart, £24.40.
- Sundays and Christmas Day are free in every Waverley car park in Farnham.
- Bank holidays are charged. Charging periods run Monday to Saturday “including bank holidays”.
- Blue Badge holders park free, in all Waverley car parks, since 13 April 2026.
- On-street resident permits are Surrey County Council’s, not Waverley’s, and cost £88 for a first permit.
Every Farnham car park and what it charges
All charges below took effect on 13 April 2026 under Waverley’s Notice of Variation of Off-Street Parking and Permit Charges, dated 20 March 2026.
| Car park | 1hr | 2hr | 3hr | 4hr | 6hr | All day | Charging period | Spaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central | £1.40 | £2.60 | £3.90 | £5.60 | £8.90 | £24.40 | 8am to 10pm | 268 |
| Lower Hart | £1.40 | £2.60 | £3.90 | £5.60 | £8.90 | £24.40 | 8am to 10pm | 236 |
| Brightwells Yard | £1.10 | £2.00 | £2.90 | £4.00 | £8.90 | £10.00 | 8am to 6.30pm | 170 |
| Upper Hart | £1.10 | £2.00 | £2.90 | £4.00 | £8.90 | £10.00 | 8am to 6.30pm | 325 |
| Waggon Yard | £1.10 | £2.00 | £2.90 | £4.00 | £8.90 | £10.00 | 8am to 6.30pm | 236 |
| St James | £1.00 | £2.00 | £2.90 | £4.70 | £5.60 | £6.80 | 8am to 6.30pm | 83 |
| Memorial Hall | £1.00 | £2.00 | £2.90 | £4.70 | £5.60 | £6.80 | 8am to 6.30pm | not published |
| Riverside 1, 2 and 3 | £1.00 | £2.00 | £2.90 | £4.70 | £5.60 | £6.80 | 8am to 6.30pm | not published |
| South Street | £1.40 | £2.60 | £3.90 | £5.60 | 4hr max | 4hr max | 8am to 10pm | 210 |
| Leisure Centre | £1.00 | £2.00 | £2.90 | £4.70 | 4hr max | 4hr max | 8am to 6.30pm | 47 |
Lower Hart also has an 8 hour rate of £14.70. Central has an 8 hour rate too, but the council’s two sources disagree on it: its Central car park page says £14.70 and the Notice of Variation says £14.40. Check the machine.
What that means in practice. If you are in Farnham for the working day and you park at Central or Lower Hart because they are the obvious ones, you are paying three and a half times what you would pay at St James, Memorial Hall or Riverside for the same hours. If you are in town for two hours, the gap narrows to 60p and it is not worth the walk.
The one that got much cheaper
Brightwells Yard, the multi-storey in the new development, used to be the most expensive place to leave a car in Farnham. Its old all-day rate was £24.40, on a charging period that ran to 10pm.
On 13 April 2026 the council cut it to £10.00 and pulled the charging period back to 6.30pm, which also removed its evening charge. Upper Hart and Waggon Yard came down at the same time, from £11.10 to £10.00. Short stays went the other way: the first hour at Upper Hart, Waggon Yard and Brightwells rose from £1.00 to £1.10, and at Central, Lower Hart and South Street from £1.30 to £1.40. All of this is set out in the 2026 Notice of Variation, which prints the old and new tariffs side by side.
Free parking, and the bank holiday trap
Sundays and Christmas Day are free. Every Farnham car park page states it, and the charging periods all run Monday to Saturday. The Off Street Parking Places Order 2026 defines controlled hours as excluding Christmas Day.
Bank holidays are not free. Every Farnham tariff board carries the phrase “including Bank Holidays”. Easter Monday, the May bank holidays and the August bank holiday are charged exactly like any other Monday. This is the opposite of what happens with the bins, where Waverley collects as normal on bank holidays and gives you nothing to think about.
Motorcycles park free in the marked areas at Central, South Street and Waggon Yard. Brightwells Yard has no motorcycle bays at all, so a bike parked in a car bay there has to pay.
Evening charges
Three Farnham car parks charge separately in the evening, between 5.30pm and 10pm, Monday to Saturday: Central, Lower Hart and South Street.
- Monday to Thursday: £1.40 for the whole evening.
- Friday and Saturday: £1.40 for one hour, £2.40 for the whole evening.
Everywhere else in Farnham stops charging at 6.30pm, so an evening out parked at Upper Hart, Waggon Yard, Brightwells Yard, St James, Memorial Hall or Riverside after 6.30pm costs nothing.
Blue Badge parking changed this year
From 13 April 2026, Blue Badge holders park free in every Waverley Borough Council car park. The yellow permit that used to be needed for free parking has been scrapped (disabled parking permits).
You still have to display the badge, and if you use a marked Blue Badge bay you must also set and display the time clock, because most of those bays have a maximum stay. Where the bays are in Farnham:
| Car park | Blue Badge bays | Maximum stay |
|---|---|---|
| Brightwells Yard | 8 | 3 hours |
| South Street | 7 | 3 hours |
| Central | 6 | 4 bays 3 hours, 2 bays 12 hours |
| Lower Hart | 6 | 5 bays 3 hours, 1 bay 12 hours |
| Waggon Yard | 4 | 3 bays 3 hours, 1 bay 12 hours |
| Leisure Centre | 3 | 3 hours |
| St James | 2 | 1 bay 3 hours, 1 bay 12 hours |
Source: the individual car park pages on waverley.gov.uk. Note the pattern: if you need to leave the car for a full working day, the 12 hour bays exist only at Central, Lower Hart, Waggon Yard and St James, one or two per site.
Blue Badges themselves are issued by Surrey County Council, through gov.uk.
Height barriers
Four Farnham car parks have a barrier, which matters for vans, roof boxes and taller estates:
- Brightwells Yard: 1.9m, the lowest in town
- St James: 2.1m
- Upper Hart: 2.1m
- South Street: 2.2m
Season tickets and permits
Permits are digital only. Paper permits stopped being issued on 2 April 2024. Apply or renew through Waverley’s permit portal.
Season tickets in Farnham car parks, 2026/27:
| Car park | Annual | Half yearly | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Riverside 1 | £963 | £576 | £96 |
| Riverside 2 and 3 | £963 | £576 | £96 |
| St James | £1,122 | £672 | £112 |
| Upper Hart | £1,447 | £870 | £145 |
| Waggon Yard | £1,773 | £1,062 | £177 |
| Upper Hart, contract permit | £1,670 | £1,002 | Not available |
| South Street Locality Office, contract permit | £1,612 | £966 | Not available |
Source: Waverley car park permits. A contract permit guarantees you a space. A season ticket does not, and in Farnham the contract permit is only offered at Upper Hart and the Locality Office car park.
Two cheaper options if you do not need the whole day:
- Off peak permit, £374 a year or £204 for six months. Covers 8am to 9.30am and 4.30pm to 6.30pm Monday to Friday, or to 10pm where evening charges apply, plus all day Saturday and bank holidays. Available at every Farnham car park listed above and at Central.
- Resident off peak permit, £200 a year. Same hours, but you have to live near the car park and there is one permit per household. In Farnham it is offered at Riverside 3, Upper Hart and Waggon Yard only.
Students at the University for the Creative Arts have their own rate at Riverside 3: £80 for term 1 (82 days), £45 for term 3 (47 days) and £84 for term 4 (103 days).
On-street resident permits are Surrey’s, not Waverley’s
The Farnham resident on-street permit scheme moved to Surrey County Council on 1 April 2023. Permits are no longer processed at Memorial Hall (residents’ parking scheme in Farnham).
Current prices from Surrey’s parking permits page:
- First resident permit: £88 a year. Second, £108. Third and subsequent, £138.
- Visitor permits: £2 for an all-day one, up to 150 a year per household. £1 for a two-hour one, up to 250 a year.
- Childcare permits: £108. Carers’ and operational permits are free.
- Changing the vehicle on a permit permanently costs £15. A temporary change, such as a courtesy car, is free and lasts up to two weeks.
Be careful reading that page. The prices above are in its “Cost of permits” section, but the frequently asked questions further down the same page still show last year’s £84, £104 and £134. Take the higher, current set.
Farnham has two controlled parking zones, and they are more restricted than the rest of the borough. In scheme A, the town centre zone, and scheme B, the railway station zone, a household may apply for a maximum of one permit, and only if the property has no off-street parking. Elsewhere in Waverley the limit is two (parking permits allocation, terms and conditions).
One rule that costs people money: no Surrey permit, of any kind, is valid in a borough council car park. A resident permit will not get you a free space at Central or Waggon Yard.
Farnham station
Farnham station car park is run by South Western Railway, not the council, and is paid through RingGo code 2017.
| Spaces | 558 |
| Peak | £9.10 |
| Off peak, from midday Monday to Friday | £4.60 |
| Saturday, Sunday and bank holidays | £4.60 |
| Per hour, from midday, RingGo only | £1.50 |
| Weekly | £36.30 |
| Monthly | £127.00 |
| Quarterly | £381.00 |
| Annual | £1,270.00 |
| CCTV | None |
Source: South Western Railway, Farnham station information.
Blue Badge holders park free at the station, but only after registering with SWR in advance. The station also has 134 cycle spaces, sheltered, across both platforms and both car parks.
For commuters, the arithmetic is worth doing. A full year of station parking is £1,270. A year in Upper Hart, an eight minute walk away, is £1,447 on a season ticket, and a year in Riverside 1 is £963.
Fines, and a scam to know about
If you get a penalty charge notice in a Waverley car park, paying within 14 days halves it. Pay or challenge at councilparking.org/waverley, or by phone on 0333 121 0109. On-street fines are Surrey’s and are challenged through Surrey County Council.
The council has issued a specific warning about a scam:
- Waverley never sends penalty charge notices by post, text or email. The only way one is served in its car parks is a physical notice on the windscreen or handed to the driver.
- Waverley does not use QR codes for payment in any of its car parks. If there is a QR sticker on a machine, do not use it.
Source: Waverley parking fines.
Before you drive in
Farnham town centre has been under construction since early 2025 and the closures move every few weeks, taking disabled bays and bus stops with them. Check what is closed in Farnham right now before you set off.
More Farnham local information
- Farnham bin collection days: bank holidays, garden waste and the tip
- Farnham council tax bands: every band A to H for 2026/27
- Farnham train times to London
- Things to do in Farnham
Have your say