Duke Street is free after 3pm, Kennedy Avenue and Princes Way always. Charges run 8am to 10pm seven days, and 10 hours at the station costs more than a day.

Since 26 May 2025 every Cheshire East car park charges from 8am to 10pm, seven days a week. Sundays and evenings are no longer free, and normal charges apply on every bank holiday except Christmas Day (car park charges and tickets).

That makes the free options worth knowing precisely, because they are not obvious and the council does not gather them in one place. In Macclesfield there are four:

  • Kennedy Avenue, SK10 3ET (28 bays) is free at all times.
  • Princes Way, SK11 8UB (12 bays) is free at all times.
  • Duke Street, SK11 6UR is free after 3pm every day.
  • The Town Hall car park, SK10 1EA: the larger area opens to the public free of charge after 5pm on weekdays. On Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays the whole thing is pay and display from 8am to 10pm.

The Town Hall one is the trap in reverse. Its smaller area is 30 minutes maximum on weekdays, so a car left there at 4pm on a Tuesday is over-staying an hour before the free period starts.

What a day costs, by car park

What a full day's parking costs in Macclesfield, August 2026 Horizontal bar chart of Cheshire East 14-hour tariffs. Standard band car parks such as Duke Street, Jordangate and Whalley Hayes: 4 pounds 20. Churchill Way, Grosvenor, Pickford Street and Sunderland Street band: 6 pounds 20. Gas Road and Waters Green: 8 pounds 80. Council station long-stay car park: 13 pounds 20 per day. Kennedy Avenue and Princes Way are free, Duke Street is free after 3pm and the Town Hall area is free after 5pm on weekdays. Source: Cheshire East Council tariff page. A full day's parking in Macclesfield Cheshire East 14-hour tariffs (station = per day), August 2026 Duke St / Jordangate band £4.20 Churchill Way / Grosvenor band £6.20 Gas Road / Waters Green £8.80 Station long-stay (per day) £13.20 Free options Kennedy Avenue (28 bays) and Princes Way (12 bays) are always free; Duke Street is free after 3pm The Town Hall parking area opens to the public free after 5pm on weekdays Source: Cheshire East Council car park tariffs, Macclesfield. Graphic by The Macclesfield Times.
Graphic by The Macclesfield Times. An hour is 80p in the standard band and £1.40 in the pricier central band.

Macclesfield’s council car parks sit in three price bands, and picking the right one roughly halves a full day (car parks in Macclesfield).

Standard band, 80p an hour and £4.20 for 14 hours: Christchurch (82 bays), Commercial Road (59), Duke Street (269), Hibel Road (20), Jordangate multi-storey (243) and Whalley Hayes (254).

Central band, £1.40 an hour and £6.20 for 14 hours: Churchill Way (272 bays), the Grosvenor multi-storey (220), Pickford Street (110) and Sunderland Street (40).

Railway band, £1.20 an hour and £8.80 for 14 hours: Gas Road (45 bays) and Waters Green (42), both a short walk from the station.

Short stay, 70p for 30 minutes and £3.90 for four hours: Old Library (28 bays), Park Green (18) and Parsonage Street (25). Exchange Street (107 bays) is cheaper still at £2.20 but caps you at two hours.

The station car park charges more for 10 hours than for a day

The council’s published tariff for Macclesfield Railway Station car park (SK11 6JP, 57 bays) runs like this: £1.20 for an hour, £4.30 for six hours, then £13.22 for 10 hours, £13.20 for 14 hours and £13.20 for a full day.

Ten hours costs 2p more than 24. Two days are £26.40 and three days £39.60, which is the maximum stay. If you are away for a whole working day, buy the day.

Waters Green at £8.80 is the cheaper long-day option a few minutes’ walk away. Overnight parking is only allowed on the council’s multi-day car parks, which in this district means Macclesfield Station and Broadway Meadow in Wilmslow. The station’s own 64 spaces, including eight accessible bays, are separate and run under ANPR; that side is covered on our trains to London page.

Multi-storeys: opening hours, height limits and cash

Both of Macclesfield’s multi-storeys close at night, so the 10pm charging deadline is academic there.

  • Grosvenor, SK11 6AY. Monday to Saturday 8am to 6pm, Sunday 11am to 4pm. Height limit 1.95m in the main car park and 1.8m in the small car zone. Maximum stay 10 hours Monday to Saturday and 5 hours on Sundays. Its seven ticket machines are cash only.
  • Jordangate, SK10 1EE. Monday to Saturday 7am to 7pm, Sunday 10.30am to 4.30pm. Height limit 1.9m, 12 hours maximum, four electric vehicle charging bays.

Almost every other machine in Macclesfield is card or contactless only. Duke Street is the town’s cash car park at ground level, and Grosvenor takes cash inside. If you are relying on RingGo, note that Hibel Road has no ticket machine at all and is app-only.

Two figures on the council’s own Macclesfield page do not agree with each other. Duke Street’s notes say coach parking is £15 for up to 14 hours, while the tariff field on the same page reads £16. Check the sign at the machine before you pay.

Free after 3pm in the villages, and the free car park in Bollington

The council runs one free-after-3pm car park in each town (car parks free after 3pm):

Town Free after 3pm A full day
Macclesfield Duke Street, SK11 6UR £4.20
Wilmslow Rex / Hoopers, SK9 1NX (4hr max) short stay only
Knutsford Princess Street, WA16 6BU £5.30
Poynton Civic Hall, SK12 1RB £4.20
Alderley Edge South Street, SK9 7ES (4hr max) short stay only
Handforth Wilmslow Road, SK9 3EZ £6.20
Prestbury Springfields, SK10 4DW £5.30
Disley Community Centre, SK12 2DX (3hr max) short stay only

Two places charge nothing at any hour:

  • Bollington has one council car park, Pool Bank, SK10 5PS, and it is free. It has 71 standard bays, three disabled bays and four electric vehicle charging bays.
  • Handforth Library car park, SK9 3EZ is free, with a three-hour maximum.

Elsewhere in the district the notable tariffs are Broadway Meadow in Wilmslow (SK9 1NB), which runs to a five-day maximum at £19, and Knutsford’s four-hour short-stay car parks at King Street, Old Market Place and Silk Mill Street, all 70p for 30 minutes and £3.90 for four hours. Shirleys car park in Prestbury (SK10 4XP) is RingGo only. Disley’s two car parks both take cash.

Blue badge

Blue badge holders park free of charge and for as long as they like in any Cheshire East car park, provided the badge is displayed correctly (blue badge parking in car parks). If the disabled bays are full you may use any marked bay, but not yellow lines or hatched areas.

Macclesfield’s disabled bay counts are uneven. Charlotte Street West, SK11 6EF, is disabled parking only with nine bays. The Grosvenor multi-storey has 20, Jordangate 11, Exchange Street 10 and Charlotte Street West nine, while Christchurch has four and Whalley Hayes three. In the villages, Pool Bank in Bollington has three and South Street in Alderley Edge has two.

The warning the council repeats is worth heeding: some public car parks in these towns are run by private operators, where none of this applies. Check the notice board before you rely on a free stay.

Permits

Cheshire East permits are now virtual, checked by number plate. You only pay the £30 change fee if you still hold a paper permit.

On-street resident permits (residents’ street permits):

  • First permit £100, second £120, third where applicable £135, each lasting a year.
  • Maximum two per household. If you have off-street parking for one car you can have one permit; off-street parking for two cars means none.
  • Business permits cost £150 and are for customers, not owners or staff.
  • Carers’ permits are free, one per household, and can be held alongside a resident permit.
  • Motorcycles are free, but must be registered with the scheme by email.
  • Blue badge holders do not need a permit at all.

Central Macclesfield streets in the scheme run from Albert Place and Backwallgate through Chestergate, Churchill Way, Jordangate, Mill Street, Park Green, Sunderland Street and Waters Green. Several addresses inside those streets are excluded, including Craven House and the Lusso Apartments on Churchill Way, the Guildhall on King Edward Street, Alma Mill on Pickford Street and Paradise Mill on Park Lane.

Car park permits cost the same £100 and £120, are tied to one named car park and one vehicle, and require you to be on the electoral register with no access to off-street parking (resident car park permits).

There is also an extended hours permit, created for people hit only by the evening and Sunday charges. It covers 6pm to 10pm Monday to Saturday and 8am to 10pm on Sunday, you can hold up to three per property, and your address must be within 150 metres of the car park (extended hours parking permit). The council does not publish the price of this permit on that page, and it states plainly that there is no right of appeal if it refuses one.

If you get a ticket

Cheshire East penalty charge notices are £70 or £50 depending on the contravention (pay a parking penalty):

  • Pay within 14 days and you pay half: £35 or £25.
  • Pay after 56 days and it rises by 50%: £105 or £75.
  • Miss the 56 days entirely and the debt is registered at the County Court Traffic Enforcement Centre, adding £10 before any bailiff costs.

You cannot pay by instalments. Two other things catch people out: entering only part of your registration at a machine can earn you a ticket in itself, and a ticket with time left on it cannot legally be passed to another driver.

The council also warns about QR code scams. Its parking app provider, RingGo, does not use QR codes, and the council never texts residents asking for payment of a parking fine.

Also on The Macclesfield Times