To: Landsec (Owners of Brighton Marina) and Brighton Marina Management
Keep Brighton Marina Parking Free or Subsidised: Save Shops, Cinema & Car Boot
Keep multi-storey parking at Brighton Marina free, or introduce customer validation so anyone spending money at on-site venues—like Cineworld, the restaurants, and shops for free. Along side free parking Sunday mornings for Car Boot Sales
Why is this important?
For over 20 years, the Marina cinema has been my sanctuary. When life gets overwhelming, heading down there to catch a film is often my only real break—it clears my head, resets my mind, and gives me breathing room during stressful times.
As a local parent, it has also evolved into our family's go-to spot for stress-free days out, letting you take the kids to Cineworld or wander the boardwalk without an expensive parking meter ticking away in your mind.
Under free parking, a trip out didn't end when the cinema credits rolled. It meant lingering to support on-site businesses—wandering over to feed my four-year-old’s addiction to books and colouring pads at The Works, grabbing a coffee, or treating the family to a meal.
Slapping an upfront parking charge on the multi-storey completely destroys that spontaneous spending. Nobody with young children is going to pack up a buggy, strap an exhausted toddler into a car seat, navigate out of the multi-storey, and drive around the estate just to use Asda's separate two-hour bay for a quick snack or browse. You just give up, pack up, and drive straight home.
It’s not just cinema-goers and young families who lose out. What happens to the beloved Sunday car boot sale on the top deck? For decades, hundreds of local people have relied on it to sell unwanted goods or hunt for affordable second-hand items. Charging sellers and casual bargain hunters to park on a Sunday morning will slowly strangle one of the best, most accessible community traditions in town.
Brighton Marina’s entire appeal has always been frictionless lingering. Look around the boardwalk today: there are already far too many shuttered storefronts, empty restaurant units, and boarded-up spaces. The Marina is struggling for footfall as it is—slapping parking charges on long-standing, loyal visitors isn't going to revitalise it, it will hollow it out even further.
While regular maintenance and repairs to a massive multi-storey car park cost money, pricing out genuine visitors is completely self-defeating. At the moment, visitors get four hours of free parking. Scrapping that entirely in favour of an immediate flat hourly fee will simply drive people away to out-of-town retail parks with free parking.
There has to be a balanced solution that works for everyone: keep an initial free window (like the current 4 hours), validate parking for paying customers at the cinema, restaurants, and shops, or reduce rates to a nominal 20p to 50p an hour. Punishing loyal visitors, struggling businesses, and Sunday traders with an empty car park helps no one.
Under free parking, a trip out didn't end when the cinema credits rolled. It meant lingering to support on-site businesses—wandering over to feed my four-year-old’s addiction to books and colouring pads at The Works, grabbing a coffee, or treating the family to a meal.
Slapping an upfront parking charge on the multi-storey completely destroys that spontaneous spending. Nobody with young children is going to pack up a buggy, strap an exhausted toddler into a car seat, navigate out of the multi-storey, and drive around the estate just to use Asda's separate two-hour bay for a quick snack or browse. You just give up, pack up, and drive straight home.
It’s not just cinema-goers and young families who lose out. What happens to the beloved Sunday car boot sale on the top deck? For decades, hundreds of local people have relied on it to sell unwanted goods or hunt for affordable second-hand items. Charging sellers and casual bargain hunters to park on a Sunday morning will slowly strangle one of the best, most accessible community traditions in town.
Brighton Marina’s entire appeal has always been frictionless lingering. Look around the boardwalk today: there are already far too many shuttered storefronts, empty restaurant units, and boarded-up spaces. The Marina is struggling for footfall as it is—slapping parking charges on long-standing, loyal visitors isn't going to revitalise it, it will hollow it out even further.
While regular maintenance and repairs to a massive multi-storey car park cost money, pricing out genuine visitors is completely self-defeating. At the moment, visitors get four hours of free parking. Scrapping that entirely in favour of an immediate flat hourly fee will simply drive people away to out-of-town retail parks with free parking.
There has to be a balanced solution that works for everyone: keep an initial free window (like the current 4 hours), validate parking for paying customers at the cinema, restaurants, and shops, or reduce rates to a nominal 20p to 50p an hour. Punishing loyal visitors, struggling businesses, and Sunday traders with an empty car park helps no one.
