Free hour-long parking is back in parts of Windsor and Maidenhead next year.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council will be bringing the popular program back to six of its parking lots after removing it to save money.

Senior advisers agreed at a cabinet meeting to offer free parking again, which will cost the authority £ 135,000.

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The revised shed covers Alma Road and Alexandra Gardens in Windsor, Grove Road and West Street in Maidenhead, Horton Road in Datchet and Meadow Lane in Eton.

The program, which will be implemented from April, aims to attract shoppers to city centers and main streets.

The loss of revenue of £ 135,000 will be covered by inflationary increases in fees and charges in car parks.

According to the council’s document, pre-Covid data shows these parking lots were primarily used by short-term users and were popular destinations when the previous Advantage card program was implemented.

How to Apply for the Windsor and Maidenhead Free Parking Program

Licenses will be provided through the RingGo app as a “license solution” where drivers will need an account to be registered on the program and there will be a two month application process to access the discount.

Applications will begin in February. Once approved, it will last up to two years.

Since RingGo operates on a “zoned system” residents will need to request the reduction in each individual parking lot. However, Windsor’s two parking lots are zoned as one parking lot, as are the two Maidenhead parking lots, meaning residents will need to apply for Windsor and another for Maidenhead.

Support will be provided through libraries, walk-in sessions and by phone for those who do not have a smartphone.

Speaking at the Thursday December 16 meeting, Senior Parking Member Councilor David Cannon (Con: Datchet, Horton and Wraysbury) said: “We have been working with RingGo on this topic and because we are in the point of this, we are one of the few, if not the only, arrondissement that actually delivers [parking] discount, we had to adapt existing systems and innovate with that.

But members of the opposition said other popular parking lots, such as the Hines Meadow parking lot in Maidenhead, had been overlooked and called for them to be added to the revised schedule.

Cllr Cannon admitted that he added that all parking lots would be “popular” but “financially prohibitive”.

However, it does not exclude adding other car parks as the project progresses.

The old regime provided that residents with an advantage card were entitled to reductions in parking lots managed by the municipality.

In 2020 people were furious when the Tory-led council decided to remove the element of the resident parking reduction program in order to save £ 650,000.

More than 7,000 people have signed a petition to save the rebate, one activist calling the move a “pinch.”

But Cllr Cannon said the board is now in a position where it is “financially responsible” to introduce a revised plan.

Meanwhile, Cllr John Bowden (Con: Eton & Castle) welcomed the revised discount, adding that there had been “substantial abuse” of the previous system where advantage cards were “offered around” parking machines.

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