Council car parks in Morpeth, Alnwick, Hexham and Berwick are free, but five towns need a £1 disc or it is a £50 fine. On the coast Beadnell is £9.50 all day.

Almost every council car park in a Northumberland town centre is free. Morpeth, Alnwick, Hexham, Berwick, Blyth, Ashington, Cramlington, Ponteland, Prudhoe, Haltwhistle, Rothbury and Wooler between them have well over a hundred council spaces and, apart from two railway station car parks, none of them charges anything.

The trap is the parking disc. In five towns the short-stay bays are free but you must display a disc set to your arrival time, and not displaying one is a £50 penalty. The disc costs £1 and you have to buy it before you park.

The money is at the coast. Beadnell, Bamburgh, Craster, Low Newton, Holy Island and Seahouses all charge, some of them more than a city centre.

Checked against Northumberland County Council on 31 August 2026.

The £1 disc, and the five towns that need it

You need a disc in the short-stay bays in Alnwick, Berwick, Hexham, Morpeth and Ponteland. Long-stay car parks in the same towns do not need one.

Discs cost £1 and are sold at libraries, tourist information centres, customer information centres, some local businesses named on the car park signs, and from dispensers in some car parks. A disc issued with a Blue Badge, or by another council, is accepted.

Some car parks split the difference by bay colour, which is easy to get wrong:

  • Wentworth, Hexham: white bays all day with no disc, blue bays four hours with a disc, red bays two hours with a disc, all in one car park.
  • St James, Morpeth: white bays long stay with no disc, red bays three hours with a disc.
  • Merton Way South and Thornhill Road, Ponteland: each is split into a long stay half and a three-hour disc half.

Source: the council’s parking locations and charges page and the per-town car park pages linked below.

Free town centre car parks, town by town

Every car park in this section is free. The max stay and the disc requirement are what vary.

Morpeth has 22 council car parks and only the railway station charges. Goose Hill, Greys Yard, Matheson’s Gardens, Gas House Lane and Staithes Lane are all-day and disc-free. Back Riggs, Castle Square, Corporation Yard, Dacre Street, Newmarket East and West, Stanley Terrace North and South, The Terrace and the four Whalebone Lane car parks are three hours with a disc. Two have gates: Gas House Lane closes at 6pm and Staithes Lane at 10pm on weekdays and 4pm on Sunday, and a car left inside is locked in until the morning.

Alnwick: Dispensary Street, Greenwell Road B, C and E, Pottergate New Row and Roxburgh Place are all-day and disc-free. Bondgate Hill Cobbles, Clayport Street, Fenkle Street, Market Street and the two Bondgate Within stretches are two hours or less with a disc, and one Bondgate Within bay is 30 minutes.

Hexham: Alemouth Road, Gilesgate long stay, Hexham Fire Station, Tyne Green and Tyne Mills are all-day and disc-free. Market Place is one hour with a disc, the tightest limit in the county town group.

Berwick-upon-Tweed: Castlegate long stay and overflow, Coxons Lane, Foul Ford, Hatters Lane and Quayside are all-day and disc-free. Hide Hill is one hour with a disc. The railway station is the exception and charges.

Blyth: Blyth Sports Centre, Freehold Street, High Street, Keel Row and King Street, all day, no disc.

Ashington: eight car parks including the railway station, all day, no disc. Time limits apply 8am to 6pm Monday to Saturday, including bank holidays.

Cramlington: Middle Farm and Smithy Square are all-day council car parks. Manor Walks is not run by the council. It is free but managed by Excel Parking Services with a four to six hour limit, so a ticket there is a private one and the council’s appeal route does not apply.

Ponteland: Merton Way North, the long-stay halves of Merton Way South and Thornhill Road, and Ponteland Leisure Centre, all free and disc-free.

Prudhoe: Fair View, Neale Street and Oaklands. Haltwhistle: Fair Hill, Lanty’s Lonnen and the Railway Station. Rothbury: Beggars Rigg and Cowhaugh. Wooler: Padgepool Place, Ramsey’s Lane and the Bus Station. All free.

Across the free car parks the standard limit is 24 hours, after which you must take the car away for four hours before returning.

Corbridge is the exception

Corbridge is the only town centre in the county where the council charges on the street-side car parks. Church Lane, Front Street, Hill Street, Main Street, Princes Street, St Helens Street, Watling Street and Well Bank all run 30 minutes free, then £1 for an hour, £1.30 for two hours and £2 for three hours, with a three-hour maximum. Charges apply 9am to 6pm Monday to Saturday, including bank holidays.

Corbridge Village car park, a short walk further out, is free and all day. Source: Corbridge car parks.

The coast, where the money is

Charges apply 8am to 6pm every day including bank holidays, and the maximum stay is 72 hours.

Car park Cost
Beadnell 1 hour free, 3 hours £7, all day £9.50
Bamburgh Village 3 hours £7, 4 hours £8, 5 hours £9, all day £10.50
Chare Ends, Holy Island 3 hours £7, 4 hours £8, 5 hours £9, 24 hours £10.50, 48 hours £21, 72 hours £31.50
Craster 1 hour £3.30, 2 hours £5.50, 3 hours £7, all day £9.50
Low Newton 1 hour £3.30, 2 hours £5.50, 3 hours £7, all day £9.50
Newton Steads 1 hour £3.30, 2 hours £5.50, 3 hours £7, all day £9.50
Station Yard, Seahouses 1 hour free, 2 hours £5.50, 3 hours £7, all day £10.50
Beach View, Boulmer 2 hours £1, 3 hours £1.50, all day £3

Two things are worth noticing in that table. Beadnell and Seahouses give you the first hour free and then jump straight to £5.50 or £7, so a 65-minute stop at Beadnell costs £7. And Craster and Low Newton charge £3.30 for a single hour, which is more than three hours in Corbridge.

Free coastal car parks do exist: Beachway, Mermaid and Ranch Links at Blyth, Church Point at Newbiggin, Fountain Head and Old Hartley at Seaton Sluice, and High Newton. Green Lane on Holy Island is Blue Badge holders only and free to them.

At Craster Quarry the wifi is weak and PayByPhone may not work. All the machines take coins and the one nearest the tourist information centre takes contactless. Source: coastal car parks.

Amble is a mixed case. Nine of its ten car parks are free, but Turner Street East charges: free for an hour, then £1 for two hours, £1.50 for three and £3 all day. Turner Street West, across the road, is free.

The council warns that fraudulent QR codes have been stuck on PayByPhone signs across the North East. Use the app or the location code printed in the council’s own tables, not a code scanned off a sticker.

Station parking

Station Cost
Morpeth Railway Station, South and West 24 hours £4.50, 48 hours £9, 72 hours £13.50
Berwick Railway Station 24 hours £4.50, 48 hours £9, 72 hours £13.50, first 20 minutes free in marked bays
Alnmouth Railway Station Northbound 24 hours £2.50, 48 hours £5, 72 hours £7.50

Berwick charges 24 hours a day, seven days a week, bank holidays included. The southbound car park at Alnmouth is Network Rail’s, not the council’s, so its prices are set separately. Ashington and Haltwhistle station car parks are free.

Permits

  • Resident permit: £35 a year. Visitor permit: £35 a year. One of each per eligible property, inside a designated scheme area only. The permit does not reserve a space. Vehicle registrations can be changed three times a year. Schemes run in Alnwick, Alnmouth, Ashington, Bamburgh, Bedlington, Berwick, Corbridge, Cramlington, Hexham, Longhoughton, Morpeth and Newton-by-the-Sea, street by street rather than town-wide. The council publishes a zone code list naming the eligible houses, sometimes down to odd or even numbers on one side of a street.
  • Pay and display permit, valid in any council pay and display car park: £140 for three months, £240 for six, £440 for twelve.
  • Permits are now digital and issued through MiPermit. Existing paper permits stay valid until they expire.

Source: parking permits.

Blue badge

A Blue Badge parks free in a disabled bay, free in an on-street bay where on-street parking is allowed, and free in any bay in a council car park if no disabled bay is free.

The catch is the same as everyone else’s. In a council car park a Blue Badge holder still has to display a clock or disc set to the arrival time. Check signs for time limits. Misuse carries a fine of up to £1,000 and confiscation of the badge. Source: Blue Badge use and misuse.

Motorhomes

Sleeping overnight is allowed in twelve bays across three coastal car parks and nowhere else: Amble Braid bays 1 to 3, Bamburgh Village bays 1 to 5 and Beadnell Overflow bays 1 to 4.

  • the permit is £15, online only
  • one night only, 6pm to 8am
  • the vehicle must be self-contained with a toilet, sink and waste storage on board
  • staying past 8am means paying the car park’s normal charge
  • sleeping, cooking or camping in any other council car park is enforced against

Daytime motorhome parking is free in a longer list of car parks including Tyne Green and Wentworth in Hexham, Dispensary Street and Roxburgh Place in Alnwick, Castlegate in Berwick, Fair View in Prudhoe, and Beggars Rigg and Cowhaugh in Rothbury. Source: motorhome parking.

Fines

Grade Fine Example
High £70 Parking on double yellow lines
Low £50 Not displaying a pay and display ticket

Pay within 14 days and the fine halves. You have 28 days in total. Miss that and a Notice to Owner goes to the registered keeper; miss another 28 days and a Charge Certificate adds 50%; 14 days after that it goes to an Order for Recovery.

Two things in the council’s favour that are worth knowing before you appeal. Overstaying gets a mandatory 10-minute grace period before a ticket can be issued, including on an expired disc or pay and display ticket. And a civil enforcement officer has to stay near the vehicle for an observation period first, unless the parking is dangerous, in which case a ticket can be issued instantly. The photographs behind any ticket are on the council’s PCN portal. Source: reasons for receiving a parking fine.

The council only issues tickets in its own car parks and on street. Manor Walks in Cramlington and the southbound car park at Alnmouth are private, and their tickets follow a different process.