Cllr Julie Leigh, Leader of Bassetlaw District Council
Recently, we announced plans to make sure that all our car parks meet the future needs of residents and that they support the local economy. In this week’s column I’d like to share with you just what that means for visitors and businesses.
All our proposals were put forward following our Car Park Conversation, which drew over 700 responses from the public, visitors and business owners. Thanks to this feedback, we have proposed to introduce several positive measures.
This includes changing our prices across all our car parks to ensure our charges are consistent no matter where you park. While there could be an increase in some prices, in many cases, there could be a reduction in the cost of parking in our town centres, especially if you pay by RingGo, where you’ll save 20 per cent.
We have also listened to the calls of businesses and visitors and over a 12-month trial, we will be offering one hour of free parking in our car parks on Queen Street, Worksop and West Street in Retford at any time.
In addition to this, in the run-up to Christmas we want to encourage more people into our town centres to support our high streets. So we will be offering free Christmas parking from 1pm in all our car parks. This will start on Saturday, 22nd November 2025 and return to normal charging on Monday, 5th January 2026.
There are more proposals that we have put forward, and all of these will be subject to a public consultation that will be launched in the new year.
However, an Extraordinary Council Meeting has also been called to debate these proposals on Thursday 6th November, so please check the Council’s social media and website for further updates on this.
Next weekend I will be joining former and current members of the Armed Forces, their families and residents in paying tribute and recognising the sacrifice made by so very many of those who lost their lives during conflicts around the world.
The Remembrance Day event in Worksop is taking place on Sunday 9th November and members of the public are invited to be part of this commemoration from 10am. You can learn more about this in the news section of www.bassetlaw.gov.uk.
Last Updated on Tuesday, January 13, 2026