The “Bradbourne” car park in Bradbourne Park Road will re-open on Monday 10 April. The new decking is complete and has increased the parking capacity there from 168 to 420 spaces.

At the same time the “Sennocke” car park in Hitchen Hatch Lane with 84 spaces will close.

Prices are changing: afternoon parking will be more expensive and Sunday parking will no longer be free.

The redevelopment of Sevenoaks District Council’s Bradbourne car park, and the simultaneous problems on Southern, has caused problems parking at Sevenoaks station.  And we have thought that there were better options if the District Council and the railway companies had been able to work together.

However the rebuilding work is now complete: the re-built car park is opening on Monday and the existing car park on Hitchen Hatch Lane, the site of the future hotel, will close after Sunday 9 April. Overall there will be 168 more spaces – and they will be on one site, rather than two, making it a bit easier to find a free space during the day.

Prices will change. Although the Monday-Friday all-day rate remains £7.00 – the same as the railway-operated Morewood Close carpark – charges for shorter and off-peak stays have been increased:

• there is a single shorter-stay rate of £1 an hour for up to 5 hours. (The previous rate was a £1 flat fee for up to 2 hours, or a £1.50 flat fee for up to 3.5 hours between 1500 and 1830 Monday to Saturday.) So this will be an increase for most off-peak parkers – although it is still a far better deal on weekdays than the £6.40 “after-1430” rate for the Morewood Close car park.
• Saturday and Sunday have an all-day charge of £5. (Previously Sundays and Bank Holidays were free, and although the Saturday the all-day charge will be lower there are no longer shorter-stay rates on Saturday.)

Electric Charging points

Sevenoaks District Council say that “new levels of charge will provide greater flexibility”. They also say that the new weekend day charge reflects the level of investment on the part of the Council giving a brand new modern car park close to the station, complete with ‘smart’ led lighting, electric vehicle charging bays and full CCTV coverage.

The design of the new car park has achieveed the ParkMark safer car park award.

Season ticket rates vary from those in the Morewood Close Park and need to be studied carefully. Annual seasons are cheaper (£1,110 rather than £1,2267) but monthly seasons are more expensive (£140 rather than £118.30). The new Bradbourne car park will have a “premium” annual rate of £2,500 for reserved extra-large bays close to the car park entrance; that’s a very “ambitious” price compared to the £1,546 for a place in Car Park 1 on the Kippington side of the station itself.

There are more details about the new car park on the Sevenoaks District Council website.

A final note: in the world of joined-up government Kent County Council have chosen this period to permit major road works on Hitchen Hatch Lane. The road will be one-way from the station junction to the junction with Bradbourne Park Road; traffic will not be allowed in the direction towards the station. (Update 14 April: The roadworks have now finished and Hitchen Hatch Lane is open in both directions.