Westminster parking charges by zone and CO2 band, current from 13 July 2026. Zone C starts at £1.51 an hour; a pre-2015 diesel in zone G pays £15.87.
Westminster parking charges changed twice in 2026, and most guides have only caught the first one. Following Cabinet approval in December 2025, on-street pay-to-park tariffs, permits and skip licences went up from Monday 2 March 2026. The council’s current fee schedule, version 20.4, is then dated from 13 July 2026, so any figure you have been quoted from the March round is already out of date.
What follows is the tariff table exactly as the council publishes it, checked against the council’s own PDF on 31 August 2026, plus the three charges that catch people out: the emissions banding, the diesel surcharge, and the app fee nobody mentions.
What you pay is set by two things, not one
Westminster does not have a flat hourly rate. Your charge is the product of which zone the bay is in and what your car emits, established by a DVLA look-up at the moment you pay.
The council publishes a base rate per zone, and every emissions band is a fixed percentage of it. Band 1, meaning a zero-emission vehicle, pays 30 per cent below the base rate. Band 5, over 256g/km or unregistered, pays 55 per cent above it. Motorcycles sit exactly on the base rate.
That produces a spread across the City wider than most drivers expect. The cheapest hour available in Westminster is £1.51 in zone C. The dearest standard rate is £10.58 in zones F and G, and a pre-2015 diesel in band 5 in those zones pays £15.87 an hour once the surcharge is applied. That is more than ten times the cheapest hour in the same borough.
The full pay-to-park table, from 13 July 2026
All figures are per hour.
| Band | CO2 (g/km) | A | B | C | D | E | F | G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M | Motorcycles (base rate) | £4.70 | £3.81 | £2.16 | £3.15 | £6.52 | £6.83 | £6.83 |
| 1 | 0 | £3.29 | £2.66 | £1.51 | £2.20 | £4.56 | £4.78 | £4.78 |
| 2 | 1 to 90 | £3.90 | £3.16 | £1.79 | £2.61 | £5.41 | £5.66 | £5.66 |
| 3 | 91 to 150, or pre-2001 under 1200cc | £5.35 | £4.34 | £2.46 | £3.59 | £7.43 | £7.78 | £7.78 |
| 4 | 151 to 255, or pre-2001 over 1200cc | £6.01 | £4.87 | £2.76 | £4.03 | £8.34 | £8.74 | £8.74 |
| 5 | Over 256, or unregistered | £7.28 | £5.90 | £3.34 | £4.88 | £10.10 | £10.58 | £10.58 |
Bands 1 to 5 sit at minus 30 per cent, minus 17 per cent, plus 14 per cent, plus 28 per cent and plus 55 per cent of the zonal base rate respectively.
The zones map to areas as follows, and our Westminster parking zones and hours page covers the sub-zones and the times of control.
| Zone | Area |
|---|---|
| A | Knightsbridge, Belgravia and Pimlico |
| B | Bayswater and Maida Vale (South) |
| C | Harrow Road, Queen’s Park and Maida Vale (North) |
| D | Victoria, Westminster and Millbank |
| E | Mayfair and St James’s |
| F | Hyde Park, Marylebone and Fitzrovia |
| G | Soho, West End and Covent Garden |
The pre-2015 diesel surcharge is 50 per cent
This is the charge that produces the genuinely alarming numbers, and it applies to every band from 2 to 5.
If your vehicle is a pre-2015 diesel, the tariff for your band is increased by half. In zone G that takes a band 3 diesel from £7.78 to £11.67 an hour, and a band 5 diesel from £10.58 to £15.87. In zone C the same band 3 diesel goes from £2.46 to £3.69.
Band 1 is unaffected for the obvious reason that a zero-emission vehicle is not a diesel. The look-up happens automatically when you pay, so there is nothing to declare and no way to avoid it.
The charge nobody warns you about
Every pay-to-park transaction in Westminster also carries an end-user charge from the payment operator of up to 30p, on top of the tariff. The council states this explicitly in its fee schedule.
On a ten-hour day in zone C that is a rounding error. On a single hour in zone C it is a 20 per cent uplift on the band 1 rate. If you are making several short stops, that fee is charged each time, and paying once for a longer session is cheaper than three separate short ones even before you consider the risk of overstaying.
How to pay, and what has gone
There are no coin machines. The council is unambiguous that the only ways to pay are the RingGo, PayByPhone or JustPark apps, by phone, or with a Parking Card. Any older guide naming a single app is out of date; there are three.
Parking Cards are priced per card at exactly the zonal base rate: £4.70 in zone A, £3.81 in B, £2.16 in C, £3.15 in D, £6.52 in E and £6.83 in F and G, plus £4.00 for a coach bay. They are the fallback for anyone without a smartphone.
Beware the QR code stickers. The council has warned that scam “Scan to Pay” QR stickers are being applied to its pay-to-park Conditions of Use signs, particularly in zone E (Mayfair and St James’s) and zone F (Hyde Park, Marylebone and Fitzrovia). Marshals are removing them as they are found. The council does not use QR codes for parking payment at all, so a QR code on a parking sign in Westminster is a fraud, without exception.
Coaches, taxis and market traders
Three categories get their own flat hourly rate, independent of zone and emissions:
- Coach pay-to-park bays: £4.00 per hour.
- Taxi pay-to-park bays: £1.00 per hour.
- Market trader pay-to-park bays: £1.00 per hour.
All three still attract the operator transaction fee.
Motorcycles: buy the season, not the hour
Solo motorcycle bays are the one place in Westminster where paying by the hour is clearly the wrong move.
| Period | Charge |
|---|---|
| Daily | £1.00 |
| Weekly | £3.50 |
| Monthly | £13.50 |
| Quarterly | £33.50 |
| Annual | £100.00 |
An annual solo motorcycle permit costs the same as roughly 21 hours parked in a zone F car bay at the band 3 rate. For anyone commuting in on two wheels, the annual charge pays for itself inside a fortnight.
Trades permits are exactly ten times the base rate
A useful piece of arithmetic for anyone quoting for work in the City. The trades permit, charged per vehicle per day, is precisely ten times that zone’s hourly base rate in every single zone: £47.00 in A, £38.10 in B, £21.60 in C, £31.50 in D, £65.20 in E and £68.30 in F and G.
If you know the base rate you know the trades permit, and vice versa. It also means a full working day on a trades permit costs the same as ten hours in the bay would at motorcycle rate, which is why it is worth having for anything over a few hours.
What is not in this document
Penalty Charge Notices are not set by the council and were unaffected by the 2026 increases. For the record, the schedule lists them at £110 for a lower charge PCN and £160 for a higher charge or moving traffic contravention, all subject to a 50 per cent discount if paid within 14 days of service. A Charge Certificate adds 50 per cent, and registration at the Traffic Enforcement Centre adds a further £11.
Resident permits are a separate scheme with its own emissions banding, running from £40 a year for a small-battery electric vehicle to £353.10 for band 6, plus a £60 diesel surcharge. Our Westminster resident parking permit cost page covers that in full.
Figures taken from Westminster City Council’s Parking-Related Fees and Charges document (from 13 July 2026), Parking Services v20.4. Checked 31 August 2026. Always confirm the current rate at the bay or in the app before you pay.
Frequently asked questions
What are the current Westminster parking charges per hour? They range from £1.51 to £10.58 an hour depending on zone and CO2 band, under the schedule effective from 13 July 2026. The cheapest is a zero-emission vehicle in zone C at £1.51; the dearest standard rate is a band 5 vehicle in zone F or G at £10.58, rising to £15.87 for a pre-2015 diesel.
Why did Westminster parking charges change twice in 2026? Cabinet approved an increase in December 2025 that took effect on 2 March 2026, covering pay-to-park tariffs, permits and skip licences. The council’s current published fee schedule is then dated from 13 July 2026, so the March figures are no longer the operative ones. Before March 2026, pay-to-park tariffs had last been amended in April 2024.
Is Westminster parking cheaper for an electric car? Yes, substantially. Band 1 covers zero-emission vehicles and is set 30 per cent below the zonal base rate, and it is the only band exempt from the pre-2015 diesel surcharge by definition. In zone G that is £4.78 an hour against £10.58 for band 5.
Do I pay more for a diesel in Westminster? Only if it is pre-2015. Those vehicles attract a 50 per cent surcharge on top of the band rate in bands 2 to 5. The check is automatic via a DVLA look-up when you pay.
Can I still pay for parking with coins in Westminster? No. Payment is by the RingGo, PayByPhone or JustPark apps, by phone, or with a Parking Card bought in advance. Parking Cards are priced at the zonal base rate.
Is the QR code on the parking sign genuine? No. Westminster does not use QR codes for parking payment. The council has warned about scam “Scan to Pay” stickers appearing on its Conditions of Use signs, especially in zones E and F, and says they should not be used under any circumstances.
How much does it cost to park a motorbike in Westminster? Solo motorcycle bays are charged by period, not by the hour: £1.00 a day, £3.50 a week, £13.50 a month, £33.50 a quarter or £100.00 a year. Motorcycles parking in ordinary pay-to-park bays are charged at the zonal base rate instead.
Does an app charge extra on top of the tariff? Yes. Westminster’s schedule states that every pay-to-park transaction carries an end-user charge from the operator of up to 30p. It applies per transaction, so several short stays cost more in fees than one longer session.
Have your say
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