As you will know all Cambridge P&R sites, including the one at Milton, now charge for parking. The system Cambridgeshire County Council have installed is an automatic number plate recognition system. This logs the vehicle number plate on the way into the site and on the way out. The first hour is free. If you require more time then the charge is £1 for up to 18 hours parking.

Tickets are available from the ticket machines next to the building and the passenger can purchase a number of different tickets on these machines depending on their requirements. There is an option for parking only, for concessionary passholders who still (for now) get free travel on the bus. There is also a park and ride ticket which the majority of users will press as this will give them a parking ticket and a ticket for travel in one transaction. Then there is a ride ticket only for those who have not parked a vehicle in the site and just wish to travel on the bus which will apply to many people from Milton who walk or cycle to the site.

Customers wishing to pre-pay for parking can do so online on www.cambridgeparkandride.com. There are a number of options including paying for a single visit, a week, 4 week or annual. There is also a bill per usage option which deducts the credit/debit card automatically at the end of each month for the exact number of times you have visited the site.

The capital cost of the ticket machines, camera and back office systems was £321,781.

Enforcement will be via a parking enforcement officer placing an enforcement notice on the vehicle in the car park. No tickets will ever be issued by post. The enforcement will be £50 (reduced to £25 if paid within 2 weeks) or £70 if parked in a disabled bay without Blue badge (reduced to £35 if paid within 2 weeks).

Should there be an issue with the automatic number plate recognition equipment on a particular site at a particular time then no enforcement notices will be placed upon vehicles during this period.

As a village we had concerns about people parking in Milton to avoid this charge so a pre-charge survey was undertaken during May and we have a copy of that online which includes areas surveyed and dates.

A post-charge survey of Butt Lane area of Milton will be carried out in September at least a week after the school term begins again.

Thanks to Mark England for his work on this article.