Save Free Parking in Sudbury, Suffolk

Bridal parties park here as to get to Sudbury registry office nearby and we shop frequently using this car park you will ruin the towns market shops from huge footfall they have now better to shop local rather than leave carbon footprint and travel further away to shop how sad to so this to a beautiful vibrant town

If I have to pay for parking, I definitely won’t be using my local town (Sudbury) for shopping/opticians/ dentist etc. I will travel to a larger town with more options for my money!

I strongly object to to any changes to the free up to 3 hour parking which are in place as at 10th May 2025. Sudbury will lose its vibrant buzz if people can no longer travel in and park freely.

What a way to try and ruin a town centre – pathetic!

we will stop doing our shopping in Sudbury if charges are introduced

Learn from Halstead... restricted parking lead to less foot fall and revenue for the town.

Charging for parking in Sudbury would be the most efficient way of killing the town's businesses. It's an utterly senseless move

The charges will add to visits to hairdressers, coffee and lunches

A substantial period of free parking is essential to keep the town thriving and attract people from other areas.

We need to save free parking in Sudbury

Losing the 3 hours free parking in Sudbury would be a retrograde step and would do nothing to support local shops. I saw the negative impact that parking charges had in Stowmarket when I was a member of the Chamber of Commerce in the town and as others have pointed out, charging for parking in Sudbury would result in it competing directly with its much larger neighbouring towns with their out of town shopping facilities.

By charging for parking Sudbury will be competing head on with its much larger town and city neighbours - most of which now have large out of town shopping areas with free parking.

Parking charges deter shoppers and make shops not viable. We need to retain shops.

I think this will adversely affect the businesses in Sudbury, they really can’t afford to lose customers.

This would affect us shopping in Sudbury, we would probably use the park and ride into Colchester

I think the introduction of parking charges would greatly reduce footfall in Sudbury, something the town cannot afford.

Its very difficult to entice back shoppers once they leave so lets not produce a reason for them to go

Losing the free parking will kill the high street / town centre, as there will be insufficient draw to pay for parking in the town centre and businesses will therefore lose out and suffer, resulting in more closures. If there's half an hour free people may still pop in for the single quick errand but won't be browsing the town centre, won't be happening to pop into places on a whim, won't be going to cafes/restaurants anywhere near as much if at all. I'd compare to Bury St Edmunds, where paying to park puts me off going very often, but I will go from time to time as I'd suggest there's a lot more draw visitors there. As for other nearby centres Ipswich and Colchester, we visit quite frequently but only very rarely go into the actual centres, so avoiding paying for parking and only using out of town facilities/shops/venues/attractions. We'd do that yet more and visit Sudbury less if it loses it's free parking. I'd also urge consideration for facilities like the Kingfisher leisure centre - will members and one off users be able to validate parking tickets for free parking or will it effectively push up the cost of use and jeopardise their client base/usage levels as well? This is significant.

This will spell the Death of a vibrant town centre. This will be the case of the Law of Intended Consequences. Because the council knows that a reduction in visitors to the shops and revenues will happen. Say No to the attack on the cars in a Rural part of Suffolk.

I will travel to Sudbury less and surely this will affect the footfall into the town. Please do not ruin a lovely market town with greed.