Parking in Sutton: Car Parks, Charges, Permits and CPZs

Parking in Sutton is cheaper than most people assume, and one car park in the borough gives you two hours free. This guide covers the eleven council car parks, the 2026 charges that took effect on 1 June, where the controlled parking zones and permit areas are, what a resident permit costs, and what happens if you get a ticket.

One thing to settle first, because it sends a lot of drivers to the wrong end of the country. This page is about Sutton in south London, the town at the centre of the London Borough of Sutton, covering Sutton itself plus Cheam, Carshalton, Wallington and Worcester Park, postcodes SM1 to SM6. It is not Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham, and not Sutton-in-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire. If your car park has a B7 or NG17 postcode, you want a different council. Everything below is set by the London Borough of Sutton.

The quick answer

Stone Place in Worcester Park gives two hours free and is free all day on Sundays, which makes it the cheapest short stop in the borough by a distance. For a full day in Sutton town centre, the surface car parks at £7.20 all day beat the two multi-storeys at £9. Every surface car park is free on bank holidays, and the multi-storeys drop to £2.10 for the whole day on Sundays and public holidays. Blue badge holders and motorcyclists park free.

Sutton council car parks and 2026 charges

The council runs two multi-storey car parks in Sutton town centre and nine surface car parks spread across Cheam, Carshalton, Wallington and Worcester Park. The current tariffs took permanent effect on 1 June 2026 under a notice of variation dated 7 May 2026.

Stone Place charges nothing for the first two hours but you must still take and display a ticket from the machine. The surface evening rate applies to a session bought after 6.30pm running to 10pm.

The two multi-storeys in Sutton town centre

Times Square, Throwley Way, SM1 4BG, opens 7am to 10.30pm Monday to Saturday and 9.30am to 6pm on Sundays and bank holidays. Gibson Road, SM1 2RF, opens 6am to 11.30pm Monday to Saturday, with the same Sunday and bank holiday hours. Both close on Christmas Day and Easter Sunday.

Both charge £3.10 for an hour, £5.20 for three hours and £9 all day, drop to £2.10 for the whole of a Sunday or public holiday, and sell a quarterly season ticket at £270. Both have electric vehicle charging, neither takes motorcycles, and both have a 1.98 metre height limit that rules out most vans and roof boxes. Leaving a car in overnight costs £15.50 a night, and with no out of hours release, an overnight stay is a decision rather than an accident. Gibson Road alone has an evening rate of £2.10 for entering after 6.30pm and leaving before 11.30pm (Gibson Road multistorey, Times Square multistorey).

The nine surface car parks

Eight of the nine share one tariff and open 8am to 10pm, seven days a week (surface car parks):

• Cheam: Cheam Library, SM3 8QH, and Kingsway Road, SM3 8SL
• Carshalton: High Street, SM5 3AP, and The Square, SM5 3BN
• Wallington: Melbourne Road, SM6 8SF, Shotfield, SM6 0QN, Wallington Library at Shotfield, SM6 0QN, and Wallington Public Hall, SM6 9AY

Thirty minutes costs £1.60, an hour £3.10, three hours £5.20 and all day £7.20. A quarterly season ticket is £156 and an annual one £624, which works out cheaper than paying £7.20 a day if you park more than about 87 days a year. Electric vehicle charging is available at Melbourne Road, Kingsway Road and The Square.

The ninth, Stone Place, KT4 8DX in Worcester Park, is the outlier and the bargain: open Monday to Saturday 8am to 5.30pm, free for up to two hours provided you display a machine ticket, £5.20 for three, and free all day on Sundays and bank holidays with no ticket needed. There is no season ticket.

Vehicles using car parks with height barriers are limited to 6ft 9in, or 2.06 metres, and there is no overnight coach parking anywhere in the borough. Stone Place is also the car park to know if you are running a load to the tip, since bulky items the council will not take are covered in our guide to Sutton bin collection days.

How to pay, and who enforces

Every council car park is pay and display, and Sutton uses RingGo for cashless parking. There is no convenience fee for using RingGo in Sutton, though optional alert texts cost 10p each. Enter the four or five digit location code shown on the signs and you can extend a session from your phone instead of walking back to the machine. Without a smartphone, call 020 3046 0010, and cash still works at the machines (cashless parking in Sutton). Enforcement is carried out by Saba, formerly Indigo, who also take reports of faulty machines on 020 8661 0096.

Blue badges and motorcycles

Blue badge holders park free in any bay in the council car parks, not just the marked disabled bays. The exceptions are motorcycle bays, car club bays, and electric vehicle charging bays unless you are actually charging. Motorcycles park free in the designated motorcycle bays, though not in the two multi-storeys, which do not admit them at all.

Controlled parking zones and permit areas

Sutton runs two different on-street schemes, and which one you are in changes how the restriction works.

Controlled parking zones (CPZs) are the more heavily controlled type. The council’s page states that Sutton has four, then lists five by name: Belmont, Sutton Town Centre, Wellington Avenue, Longfellow, and Park Lane in Cheam. The Collingwood Estate CPZ works differently again and has its own separate permit application (where CPZs operate).

Permit parking areas (PPAs) cover much more of the borough and mostly operate for a short window each day, enough to deter commuter parking without restricting residents all day. There are thirteen:

Carshalton Park Road inside CA1 is the exception to its own zone, operating 9am to 11am rather than all day (where permit parking areas operate). Residents in a PPA can also apply for 50 free hours of visitor parking vouchers.

To find out which scheme covers your street, use the council’s parking checker or the online permit parking zones map. Developments that bring parking pressure with them appear on the register covered in our guide to Sutton planning applications, and the highways and enforcement side of all this is funded from your Sutton council tax bill.

What a resident parking permit costs

Sutton prices permits by carbon dioxide emissions and by how many permits the address already holds, so a second or third car costs progressively more (parking permit fees).

Fully electric vehicles are treated as PG1, the cheapest band. If the council cannot establish a vehicle’s emissions, usually because of its age, it charges the PG3 rate, so an older car can cost nearly twice a modern one for the same permit.

Penalty charge notices

Penalty levels in Sutton are set London-wide, following a determination by the London Councils Transport and Environment Committee and approval by the Mayor of London. They rose by £30 across all 32 boroughs and the City of London on 7 April 2025:

• Higher level parking contravention: £140, reduced to £70 if paid within 14 days.
• Lower level parking contravention: £90, reduced to £45 if paid within 14 days.
• Bus lane contravention: £160.
• Moving traffic contravention: £160.

The 14 day discount window extends to 21 days for parking penalties issued from mobile CCTV or another approved device. Pay online, by automated phone line on 03300 884 674, or by card in person at 50 Grove Road, SM1 1BT, weekdays 9am to 2pm.

Two warnings worth taking seriously: paying a PCN is an acceptance of liability and ends your right of appeal, so do not pay if you intend to challenge it, and Sutton does not allow payment by instalments under any circumstances (pay a penalty charge notice).

Frequently asked questions

Where can I park for free in Sutton?

Stone Place car park in Worcester Park, KT4 8DX, is free for the first two hours on a machine ticket and free all day on Sundays and bank holidays. Every other council surface car park is free on bank holidays. Blue badge holders park free in any bay, and motorcyclists park free in motorcycle bays.

How much is parking in Sutton town centre?

In the Times Square and Gibson Road multi-storeys, £3.10 for an hour, £5.20 for three hours and £9 all day, falling to £2.10 for a whole Sunday or public holiday. The surface car parks in Cheam, Carshalton and Wallington are cheaper for a full day at £7.20.

How much is a resident parking permit in Sutton?

From £56 a year for a first permit on a car emitting up to 120g/km of carbon dioxide, rising to £134 for the highest emissions band and £180 for an N1 van. Second and third permits at the same address cost £30 and £60 more respectively. Electric vehicles pay the lowest band.

How much is a parking fine in Sutton?

£140 for a higher level parking contravention, halved to £70 if paid within 14 days, or £90 for a lower level one, halved to £45. Bus lane and moving traffic contraventions are £160. These are London-wide levels set in April 2025, not Sutton’s own.

Which Sutton is this?

Sutton in south London, the main town of the London Borough of Sutton, with SM1 and SM2 postcodes, alongside Cheam, Carshalton, Wallington and Worcester Park. The car parks, permits and penalties on this page do not apply in Sutton Coldfield, Sutton-in-Ashfield or any other Sutton.

Sources

• London Borough of Sutton, car parks and surface car parks
• London Borough of Sutton, Gibson Road multistorey and Times Square multistorey
• London Borough of Sutton, where controlled parking zones operate
• London Borough of Sutton, where permit parking areas operate
• London Borough of Sutton, parking permit fees
• London Borough of Sutton, pay a penalty charge notice
• London Borough of Sutton, cashless parking in Sutton (RingGo)
• London Borough of Sutton, parking checker

Tariffs are those published by the London Borough of Sutton, effective 1 June 2026, and were checked in August 2026. Charges are reviewed periodically, so read the sign or the council page before you pay. Last updated August 2026.