Exeter's council car parks run four tariffs, £19.30 all day in the centre and £5.40 in Zone 3. Where a blue badge is free, where it is not, and the Sunday trap.

Exeter City Council does not have one parking tariff. It has four, and it publishes them on four different pages. The gap between them is £13.90 a day, and almost nobody sees all four prices side by side before deciding where to leave the car.

Here is the whole thing on one page: the four zones and what each costs, which car park sits in which zone, where you can park for nothing, the blue badge rules that change from car park to car park, and what the station and the park and ride sites charge.

All council prices below are the tariff in force from 12 November 2025, checked against the council’s own pages on 24 August 2026.

The four zones and what they cost

Duration Central (Mon-Sat) Central (Sun) Zone 1 (Mon-Sat) Zone 1 (Sun) Zone 2 (Mon-Sat) Zone 2 (Sun) Zone 3 (any day)
1 hour £2.20 £2.20
2 hours £4.90 £3.70 £3.70 £2.80 £3.60 £2.80 £2.10
3 hours £6.00 £4.50 £4.80 £3.60 £4.80 £3.60 £3.20
4 hours £7.20 £5.40 £6.00 £4.50 £6.00 £4.50 £4.30
5 hours £8.40 £6.20 £7.20 £5.40 £7.20 £5.40
6 hours £9.50 £7.20 £8.30 £6.30
7 hours £10.70 £8.00 £9.50 £7.20
All day £19.30 £14.50 £13.90 £10.50 £11.80 £10.50 £5.40

Zone 3 is the outlier in more than price. It charges the same on a Sunday as on a Tuesday, and it stops at four hours: after that, the all-day rate is the only option.

Which car park is in which zone

Central, all within walking distance of the retail streets, all at the same price: Bampfylde Street, Guildhall, Howell Road, John Lewis, King William Street, Magdalen Road, Magdalen Street, Mary Arches Street, Princesshay 2, Princesshay 3, Smythen Street and Triangle.

Zone 1, close to the centre: Bartholomew Terrace and Matthews Hall.

Zone 2, a 5 to 15 minute walk out, plus one that is not in Exeter at all: Belmont Road, Bystock Terrace, Cathedral & Quay, Haven Banks One, Parr Street, Richmond Road and Topsham Quay.

Zone 3, further out and much cheaper: Bromhams Farm, Flowerpot Lane, Gordons Place, Haven Banks Two, Haven Banks Three and Coaches, Holman Way, Okehampton Street, Station Road in Exwick, and Tappers Close.

The biggest of them are Guildhall with 397 bays, John Lewis with 410, Cathedral & Quay with 355, Howell Road with 337 and Triangle with 270. Princesshay 2 has 109 bays on a weekday but opens up to 325 at weekends and on bank holidays.

Free parking, and the traps

There is a fair amount of free parking in Exeter. There is also one rule that catches visitors out every single bank holiday.

Charges apply on Sundays and on bank holidays. Every one of the 30 car parks above that publishes a charging period spells out that it includes bank holidays. Sundays are cheaper in the Central zone and in Zones 1 and 2, but they are not free.

What genuinely is free:

  • After 6pm in Zones 1, 2 and 3. Charging in those car parks runs 8am to 6pm, so an evening at Topsham Quay, Holman Way, Matthews Hall or any Zone 3 car park costs nothing.
  • Thursday evenings at Guildhall and John Lewis, after 6pm, all year round. Guildhall locks at midnight and John Lewis closes at 9.45pm.
  • Motorcycles, in the allocated motorcycle areas, where a car park has one. Bampfylde Street, Howell Road, Mary Arches Street, Princesshay 2, Princesshay 3, Smythen Street, Triangle, Belmont Road, Bystock Terrace, Cathedral & Quay, Richmond Road, King William Street, Haven Banks Two and Haven Banks Three all state that no tariff applies in the allocated bays.
  • All three park and ride sites, which are free to park at.

Free does not always mean you can stay. Haven Banks Two is locked at 8pm, Cathedral & Quay closes at 8pm, Princesshay 2 at 11pm and Princesshay 3 at 11.30pm.

And the trap inside the trap. Charging in the Central pay and display car parks runs to 10pm, not 6pm, so Bampfylde Street, Howell Road, Magdalen Road, Magdalen Street, Princesshay 2, Princesshay 3, Smythen Street and Triangle are all still charging at half past nine on a Tuesday evening.

Two Zone 1 and Zone 2 car parks stop being public at all after 6pm. Bartholomew Terrace and Richmond Road are marked “resident permit holders only after 6.00pm”.

Blue badge: free in most, not in three

Exeter’s blue badge rules follow the payment technology, not the zone, and the council does not say so anywhere in one place.

Free in the public bays, on the strength of a valid badge, at the pay and display car parks: Bampfylde Street, Howell Road, King William Street, Magdalen Road, Magdalen Street, Princesshay 2, Princesshay 3, Smythen Street, Triangle, Matthews Hall, Belmont Road, Bystock Terrace, Haven Banks One, Parr Street, Topsham Quay, Bromhams Farm, Flowerpot Lane, Haven Banks Two, Haven Banks Three, Holman Way, Okehampton Street and Tappers Close.

Not free, in three of the busiest:

  • Guildhall. 20 disabled bays near the pedestrian entrances, and the council’s page says “normal fees apply”.
  • John Lewis. 14 disabled bays on F deck, and “tariffs apply in all bays”.
  • Mary Arches Street. 8 disabled bays near the pedestrian entrance, “normal fees apply”.

Those are the two pay-on-foot car parks and the one RingGo-only multi-storey, which is why the concession does not reach them.

Three more conditions worth reading before you rely on the badge:

  • Cathedral & Quay: free only “in any space above the entrance level”. Disabled parking is on level 4.
  • Bartholomew Terrace and Richmond Road: free only between 8am and 6pm, because the car parks become resident permit only after that.
  • Gordons Place: free in any non-residents space.

On street, a valid blue badge is exempt in Devon County Council’s resident permit zones. The county’s advice is that if you regularly travel in someone else’s car and take the badge with you, you should still buy a resident permit for your own car, or risk a penalty for leaving it at home in a permit bay with neither badge nor permit displayed.

Season tickets

Council season tickets cover several of the central car parks, work in any car you own, and do not guarantee you a space. Allow at least five working days for one to be issued and posted.

Period Charge
1 month £212
2 months £423
3 months £635
6 months £1,270
12 months £2,540

Twelve months at £2,540 works out at roughly £9.75 a working day, against £19.30 to pay for the day at the gate. Magdalen Road’s season tickets are Monday to Friday only, and Richmond Road’s cover 8am to 6pm only.

Resident and visitor permits are Devon’s, not the city’s

On-street parking in Exeter is Devon County Council’s responsibility, so resident permits are not bought from the city council and are not connected to the car park season tickets above. They run through the MiPermit system and most are now digital.

  • First resident permit per address: £35. Any additional permit is priced against that vehicle’s road tax band.
  • Residents’ motorcycle permit: £35, on top of the address allocation, if you park a motorcycle in a resident bay.
  • Visitor permits: £30 per book or allocation. Most addresses in a resident zone can buy two lots a year, either two allocations of digital visitor hours, two books of 30 one-day scratch cards, or one of each.
  • Digital visitor allocations are 350 hours where the zone operates at all times, and 200 hours where it operates only on set days and times.
  • A first application needs proof of address and proof of vehicle uploaded, and Devon checks MOT and tax with the DVLA.

Not every zone includes visitor permits, so check your own scheme before assuming. Refunds are pro rata for full unused months, and paper permits are not refundable at all.

One live scheme to watch. Devon consulted between 5 March and 2 April 2026 on extending Exeter’s Zone S7, the Rifford Road area, to take in Aller Vale Close, Beverely Close, Carlton Road, Holne Rise, Whitchurch Avenue and part of Woodwater Lane. That consultation has closed and the responses go to the Exeter Highways and Traffic Orders Committee for a decision. The committee also has five further schemes queued, at Sweetbrier Lane, Cotfield Street, New Valley Road, Southbrook Road and Heraldry Way, and resolved in October 2024 to revisit their priority once Woodwater Lane concludes, which the county says was planned for July 2026. Details are on Devon’s Exeter residents’ parking page.

Station parking: three car parks, three different prices

Every car park at Exeter St Davids is on Bonhay Road, EX4 4NT, and all three are run by APCOA and open 24 hours. They are not priced the same, and the one called “overflow” is not the cheap one.

Car park Spaces Mon-Fri Sat-Sun
Wards Yard 135 £9.50 £6.50
Overflow 72 £12.00 £8.00
Main 208 £15.00 £10.00

Wards Yard is £5.50 a day cheaper than the main car park from Monday to Friday, which is £27.50 a week for a commuter. The main car park has five disabled bays and three motorcycle bays; Wards Yard and the overflow list neither. Season tickets are available at all three.

For comparison, all-day parking at Station Road in Exwick, a Zone 3 council car park, costs £5.40.

Park and ride, and a big fare cut on 1 September

All three Exeter park and ride sites are free to park at, seven days a week where they are open at all.

Site Postcode Bus Notes
Honiton Road EX2 7NL 4 and 4A Off Moor Lane roundabout by M5 J29. Height barrier 2.1m
Sowton EX2 5GL C, replaced 1 September Sidmouth Road by M5 J30. Closed Sundays and public holidays. Height barrier 2.1m
Matford EX2 8FD B and C Matford Park Road on the A379. Closed Sundays and public holidays

Every site has electric vehicle charging. Sites unlock in time for the first bus and lock after the last one arrives, and overnight parking is not allowed.

Fares are the Stagecoach Exeter DayRider: £5.50 adult, £3.60 child aged 5 to 15, £11.00 for a group of up to five. The National Bus Pass is valid on park and ride from 9.30am Monday to Friday and all day at weekends, but not on the hospital park and ride service.

From Tuesday 1 September 2026 the Sowton service changes and gets substantially cheaper. Devon County Council announced on 19 August that a new dedicated park and ride service replaces service C at Sowton, still running to Paris Street, every 15 minutes between 7am and 7pm, Monday to Saturday. The fares fall with it:

Ticket Now From 1 September
Adult return £6.00 £3.50
Group return, up to 5 people £13.00 £7.00
Weekly ticket £26.00 £14.00

Matford, Honiton Road and Sowton all continue to run into the city centre. The county’s announcement is on its news page.

One number on the council’s own page you should ignore

The council’s King William Street car park page carries two tariffs. The first is the current Central zone one, £4.90 for two hours and £19.30 all day, headed “Prices from 12 Nov 2025”. Underneath it, a second block for the Leighton Terrace entrance is still headed “Prices from 1 April 2022” and quotes £4.50 for two hours and £18.00 all day. That second block also gives a different charging period, 7am to 7pm rather than 8am to 10pm, and a different bay count.

Pay the machine, not the web page. The car park is locked at 7pm, except on Exeter City FC evening match nights and late night shopping evenings, when it stays open until 10pm.

Paying, and appealing

Most council car parks take card at the machine. RingGo pay-by-phone is available at the pay and display sites on 01392 541 000, with a 15p convenience fee on top of the tariff, and Mary Arches Street is RingGo only. Guildhall and John Lewis are pay on foot, and a lost entry chip or ticket at either costs £18.00 to replace, with no concessions.

If you pick up a fine in a council car park, the council publishes know your parking rights and an appeal form. Fines issued on street come from Devon County Council instead.

More Exeter local information