The first hour is free in every council car park, and Sundays and bank holidays are free all day. Four hours costs £5 in Market Street but £3 in Town Green.

Wymondham has four council car parks, with 249 spaces between them plus eight electric vehicle bays. The first hour is free in all of them. So is all day Sunday, every bank holiday, and after 6pm.

The catch is the fourth hour. Two of the four car parks are short stay, and a four-hour stay in a short stay car park costs £5. The same four hours in a long stay car park costs £3. Both types are in the town centre, a few minutes apart.

Every figure below is from South Norfolk Council’s own car park pages, checked on 31 August 2026.

The quick answer

  • First hour free in every South Norfolk car park. In Loddon it is the first two hours.
  • Charges apply 8am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday only, and never on bank holidays. Sundays are free.
  • Four hours: £5 short stay, £3 long stay. Over four hours is £4 in a long stay car park, and not allowed in a short stay one.
  • Harleston and Long Stratton car parks are free at all times. Pay and display runs only in Diss, Wymondham and Loddon.
  • A parking ticket is £50 or £70, halved if paid within 14 days.
  • Wymondham station car park is £3 a day flat. Diss station is £6.50.

Wymondham’s four car parks

Car park Type Spaces Up to 2 hrs Up to 3 hrs Up to 4 hrs Over 4 hrs
Market Street Short stay 57 plus 8 EV £1 £2 £5 Not allowed
Back Lane Short stay 51 £1 £2 £5 Not allowed
Cemetery Lane Long stay 90 £1 £2 £3 £4
Town Green Long stay 51 £1 £2 £3 £4

The first hour is free in all four. Short stay has a four-hour maximum. Cemetery Lane allows up to five days.

Disabled bays are listed for three of the four. Back Lane has three off-street single bays. Town Green has two off-street and one on-street. Market Street lists two off-street and two on-street, though its page files them under parking conditions rather than disabled spaces. Cemetery Lane lists none of its own. All four pages point instead to the on-street bays at Fairland Hill and Market Place.

Market Street is the only one of the four with electric vehicle spaces, and it has eight.

Where the free parking actually is

The council’s own restriction wording is the useful part: charges apply 08:00 to 18:00 Monday to Saturday inclusive, excluding bank holidays. Read literally, that means parking is free:

  • All day every Sunday.
  • All day on every bank holiday, the August one included.
  • Before 8am and after 6pm on any day.
  • For the first hour, at any time charges apply. In Loddon, the first two hours.

You still need a ticket during the free hour. Take one from the machine.

Free all the time: the council’s car parks information page confirms pay and display operates only in Diss, Wymondham and Loddon. That leaves Harleston (Broad Street, 59 spaces, and Bullock Fair Close, 129 spaces plus 8 EV) and Long Stratton (Swan Lane, 50 spaces plus 8 EV) free of charge, with no tariff published on either town’s car park pages.

South Norfolk has also run a Christmas offer in past years: an extra free hour on Saturdays in the run-up to Christmas and free parking after 4pm from 1 December. It ran in 2023 and again in 2025, each time announced in late November. Nothing has been announced for 2026. When it does run, the extra hour applies only to free or pay and display tickets, not to RingGo or Check In Check Out.

Check In Check Out, and the £20 that gets held

The machines take cards and offer Check In Check Out, where you tap on arrival and again on departure and pay only for the time used. RingGo pay by phone also works.

The trap is what happens if you forget to check out. The machine pre-authorises the maximum stay charge against your card, and only adjusts it when you check out. At Cemetery Lane the council spells out the number: £20 is reserved on your card, and that is what you are charged if you never check out. Adjustments can take up to four days to clear.

Permits: the council’s page and its own form disagree

Annual permits cover the pay and display car parks in Diss, Wymondham and Loddon.

  • The council’s permit page still quotes £380 a year from 1 April 2024.
  • The council’s own Permit Application Form 2026 quotes £400.00 for 12 months.

The form is the newer document, so budget for £400 and confirm when you apply. Either way:

  • A resident’s permit requires that you have no parking at your permanent address and that the address is within 500 metres of the car park.
  • Short stay permits are residents only. In Wymondham that means Market Street and Back Lane.
  • Long stay permits cover Town Green and Cemetery Lane in Wymondham, Church Plain and The Staithe in Loddon, and Park Road, Heritage Triangle, Shelfanger Road West and Church Street in Diss.
  • Permits are tied to one registration and are not transferable.
  • Direct Debits are taken on the 1st of each month. No refund is given with less than a month left to run.

Blue badge parking

South Norfolk does not charge for parking in a designated disabled bay when a valid Blue Badge is displayed. That applies in every council car park.

Blue Badges themselves are issued by Norfolk County Council, not the district. Wymondham’s off-street disabled bays are listed in the table above, and there are on-street bays at Fairland Hill and Market Place.

Who to complain to, and what a ticket costs

This is genuinely confusing in Norfolk, so it is worth stating plainly. Off-street car parks belong to South Norfolk Council. On-street yellow lines, bays and permits belong to Norfolk County Council through the Norfolk Parking Partnership, though the enforcement officers who patrol Wymondham work for the district. And tickets are processed by a third council altogether, the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk.

Norfolk County Council’s own guide to who deals with parking sets out the rule: if there are signs or lines, it is the council. If there are none, no council can act however inconsiderate the parking is, and only the police can intervene, and only if it is dangerous or obstructive.

Penalty charges, from Parking Operations:

  • A PCN is £50 or £70 depending on the contravention.
  • Pay within 14 days and it is halved, to £25 or £35.
  • Challenge it within 14 days and the discount period is extended if the challenge fails.
  • South Norfolk PCN numbers start YU in car parks and JC on the street.
  • Parking Operations, PO Box 1149, King’s Lynn PE30 9AH, 01553 616222.

Report an obstructed or badly parked car in a council car park to South Norfolk on 01508 533920 or parking@southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk.

Station parking

Both stations are run by Saba Park Services, and the price gap is large.

Wymondham Diss
Spaces 17 261
Accessible spaces 2 12
Per hour Not offered £1.20
Daily £3 £6.50
Saturday and Sunday £3 £4.70
Weekly Not offered £26
Monthly Not offered £94
Annual Not offered £910

Figures from the National Rail station pages for Wymondham and Diss. Both stations have cycle storage and cycle hire.

Seventeen spaces is the number to take seriously. Wymondham station has a flat £3 charge and almost no capacity, which is why the town’s long stay car parks fill on weekday mornings.

The rest of the district

Loddon is the outlier on tariffs, with the first two hours free at both Church Plain (52 spaces plus 4 EV) and The Staithe (27 spaces). After that it is £2 for three hours, £3 for four and £4 for longer.

Diss has eight council car parks, four short stay at the Wymondham tariff and four long stay. Three quirks are worth knowing before you drive in:

  • Church Street takes no parking on Fridays except authorised vehicles. The permit terms describe it as Monday to Thursday only.
  • Chapel Street (upper) has an entry barrier that operates 06:30 to 18:30 all year.
  • Park Road has an entry barrier operating 06:30 to 18:30 in winter and to 20:30 in summer.

Across South Norfolk the council owns 17 off-street car parks and nearly 900 spaces. No vehicle over 3.5 tonnes, 5.5 metres long or 2 metres high is allowed in any of them, nor is anything towing a trailer or caravan. The council does not grit its car park surfaces.

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