Every Luton street zone is free on Sundays and after 6pm. Every council car park charges on Sundays and £2 overnight. Two car parks are free for three hours.
Luton runs its street parking and its car parks on opposite rules, and almost nobody knows it. On the street, Sundays and evenings are free in every zone but one. In the council’s own car parks, Sunday costs money and there is a £2 charge every night from 6pm to 8am.
Park on Guildford Street on a Sunday afternoon and you pay nothing. Park 200 metres away in Vicarage Street and you pay £2. Everything here comes from Luton Council and the car park operator APCOA, checked on 30 August 2026. On-street charges are the ones the council states are correct as of 1 April 2026.
The quick answer
On-street: free every evening and all day Sunday, except Toddington Road. Council car parks: £7.20 all day at the three big town centre ones, £2 on Sundays and bank holidays, £2 overnight. Free for three hours at Bramingham Road and Sundon Park Road, then a £15 penalty rate. Resident permits are £71 a year. A parking ticket is £70 or £50, halved if you pay in 14 days.
Council car parks and what they cost
The council runs 14 car parks with about 830 spaces between them. Vicarage Street is the biggest, at 218 spaces, and the only one with electric vehicle charging.
| Car park | Spaces | All day, Mon to Fri | Saturday | Sunday and bank holidays |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vicarage Street, LU1 3HZ | 218 | £7.20 | £3.20 | £2 |
| Crawley Road, LU1 1HT | 165 | £7.20 | £3 | £2 |
| South Road, LU1 3AL | 51 | £7.20 | £3 | £2 |
| Hitchin Road, LU2 0EL | 60 | £6.20 | £2.90 | £1.80 |
| Wenlock Street, LU2 0NN | 53 | £6.20 | £2.90 | £1.80 |
| Brunswick Street, LU2 0DG | 11 | £6.20 | £2.90 | £1.80 |
| Mostyn Road, LU3 2RF | 33 | £4.80 | £4.80 | £2 |
| Round Green, LU2 0TQ | 19 | £1.70 max 4 hours | £1.70 max 4 hours | £1.90 |
| Chapel Viaduct 1 and 2, LU1 5FA | 97 | permit holders only | £5.20 for 5 hours | £2 |
| Sundon Park Road, LU3 3AL | 75 | free up to 3 hours | free up to 3 hours | free up to 3 hours |
| Bramingham Road, LU3 2SR | 25 | free up to 3 hours | free up to 3 hours | free up to 3 hours |
| Beech Hill, LU4 8BN | 11 | £3.60 max 2 hours | £3.60 max 2 hours | £3.60 max 2 hours |
| Birch Link, LU4 8JE | 12 | £3.60 max 2 hours | £3.60 max 2 hours | £3.60 max 2 hours |
Each car park has its own page under find a car park, with the full tariff, the space count and the PayByPhone location ID.
The overnight charge nobody expects
Every one of those car parks except Bramingham Road and Sundon Park Road charges £2 from 6pm to 8am, seven nights a week. Arriving at 7pm for dinner in the town centre is not free parking. It is £2, and then another day’s tariff if you are still there at 8am.
The two free ones, and their £15 trap
Bramingham Road (25 spaces) and Sundon Park Road (75 spaces), both in the Leagrave and Sundon Park area, are free for up to three hours. They are also free before 9am and after 5pm.
Stay one minute past three hours and the charge is £15. There is no intermediate rate. It is free, then £15.
Chapel Viaduct is not a public car park on weekdays
The two Chapel Viaduct car parks, 97 spaces between them, are private permit parking from Monday to Friday. They open to the public only at weekends and on bank holidays. An annual reserved space there is £1,150.
One page prints the wrong payment code
The Sundon Park Road page opens by giving its location ID as 803612, then prints 802305 in the payment section at the foot of the page. 802305 is South Road car park, on the other side of town. If you pay by phone using the number at the bottom of that page, you pay for a space you are not in. Use 803612, or pay at the machine.
The PayByPhone helpline for all council car parks is 01582 851141.
On-street parking: 11 zones
Luton has 11 charged on-street zones, numbered 1 to 13 with 5 and 12 missing. Charges are on the on-street parking page and the council states they are correct as of 1 April 2026.
Every zone is free in the evening. Every zone but one is free all day Sunday. Zones 10 and 11 free up at 5pm rather than 6pm.
| Zone | Where | Charges |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Town centre: Bute Street, George Street West, Guildford Street, Park Street, Upper George Street and 20 more | £1 for 15 minutes, £3 for an hour, £5.10 for 2 hours, Mon to Sat 8am to 6pm |
| 2 | Calnwood Road, Eldon Road, Faringdon Road, Stanton Road, part of Lewsey Road | £1 for an hour, £2.40 for 3 hours, Mon to Fri |
| 3 | Lewsey Road, Calnwood Road to Dunstable Road | £1.10 for 30 minutes, and 30 minutes is the maximum |
| 4 | Dunstable Road, Telford Way to Ash Road | 60p for 30 minutes, £1.20 for an hour maximum |
| 6 | High Town Road, Midland Road to Havelock Road | 60p for 30 minutes |
| 7 | Marsh Road, Mostyn Road | 80p for 30 minutes, £1.20 an hour |
| 8 | Toddington Road | £5.60 for 10 hours, and £1.70 all day on Saturday and Sunday |
| 9 | Bury Park: Selbourne Road, Waldeck Road, Kenilworth Road and 14 more | 80p for 30 minutes, £2.30 for 2 hours maximum |
| 10 | High Town: Old Bedford Road, Havelock Road, Dudley Street and 21 more | 90p for 30 minutes, £2 for 2 hours, Mon to Fri 9am to 5pm |
| 11 | Kelvin Close | 60p for 30 minutes, £2.30 for 2 hours |
| 13 | Kimpton Road | first hour free at PayByPhone code 802314 |
Two of those are worth pulling out.
Toddington Road is the only street in Luton that charges on a Sunday. It is £1.70 for the day, Saturday and Sunday alike. Every other zone is free.
Part of Kimpton Road gives you an hour free. Zone 13 covers two PayByPhone codes on the same road. At code 802314 the first hour is free and the second hour is £1.20. At code 802315, a few metres away, 30 minutes costs 60p and there is no free hour at all. Check the code on the sign before you pay.
Permits
Resident permits get more expensive with each car at the same address:
| Permit | Cost |
|---|---|
| Resident, first | £71 |
| Resident, second | £91 |
| Resident, third | £111 |
| Resident, fourth | £131 |
| Resident, fifth | £151 |
| Visitor vouchers, 10 sessions | £29 |
| Carer, all zones | £55 |
| Carer, residential zones | £65 |
| Doctor, all zones | £70 |
| Trades person, per day | £16 |
| Trades person, per week | £70 |
| Business | £600 |
Visitor vouchers must be bought in a first block of 10 for £29, then topped up. Each is valid for the day of use only and only for someone calling at your address.
Not every home inside a resident permit zone qualifies. The council says properties can have been excluded when a scheme was designed, and new-build homes are generally excluded from pre-existing schemes. Business permits are not online: you have to ring 01582 547272.
Blue Badge
The badge itself costs £10 in Luton, the maximum allowed in England. Apply through the Blue Badge pages.
Two things Luton-specific:
- Blue Badge holders are generally not allowed in permit-holder-only bays, but can use shared-use bays
- badge holders can apply for a disabled persons parking bay marked outside their home
Nine of the 14 council car parks list dedicated disabled spaces: Vicarage Street, Crawley Road, South Road, Mostyn Road, Sundon Park Road, Beech Hill and Birch Link among them.
Station parking
All three Luton stations are run by APCOA on behalf of Thameslink, and all three are ANPR controlled with no barrier ticket.
| Station | Spaces | Weekday day | Evening after 5pm | Sat and Sun | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luton (Midland Road) | 730 | £8.10 | included in day rate | £4 | £1,116.30 |
| Leagrave | 371 | £10 | £3.70 | £3.80 | £1,326 |
| Luton Airport Parkway | 815 | £11.40 | £3.80 | £3.80 | £1,535.10 |
A 15p convenience fee is added to every tariff, and all daily rates expire at 4am rather than midnight.
Two things worth knowing. First, Luton station’s own car park is dearer than the council’s: £8.10 against £7.20 for all day at Vicarage Street, five minutes’ walk away. Second, Blue Badge holders park free at all three station car parks, but only if they register the vehicle with APCOA first, on the APCOA Blue Badge portal or by ringing 01895 262122. Turning up with a badge on the dashboard and no registration will not stop the camera issuing a charge.
APCOA has also posted a live warning for Luton station: access to Station Road for drop-off and pick-up is very limited from 21 March 2026 until 8 January 2027 while a new footbridge and lifts are installed. The work is expected to finish in spring 2027.
Parking tickets
Luton runs a two-tier penalty:
| Level | Full | If paid in 14 days |
|---|---|---|
| Higher rate | £70 | £35 |
| Lower rate | £50 | £25 |
Higher rate covers yellow lines, school restriction areas, parking in a permit bay without a valid permit and loading areas. Lower rate covers overstaying, not buying a ticket and parking across the bay markings. Postal tickets get 21 days for the discount instead of 14.
One trap that catches visitors: Luton Airport’s own tickets also start with the letters LU, and the council does not issue or handle them. Check who the notice is from before you appeal to the wrong body. Details are on the PCN page.
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