{"id":45416,"date":"2026-08-23T12:47:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T11:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/?p=45416"},"modified":"2026-08-23T12:47:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T11:47:15","slug":"council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/45416-council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers","title":{"rendered":"Council introduces size-based parking permits to target SUV drivers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bath and North East Somerset Council will charge SUV and larger vehicle owners more for parking permits from 25 August.<\/p>\n<p>The size-based charging system reflects what the council says is the greater road space occupied by larger vehicles and their impact on visibility and safety.<\/p>\n<p>On-street parking permit charges will increase by 20%, with phased increases to the cost of Residents&#8217; Parking Zone visitor permits.<\/p>\n<p>Cllr Joel Hirst, cabinet member for sustainable transport strategy, said: &#8220;These changes will help us manage parking in a way that supports road safety, sustainability and fairness for all road users. Research shows that larger vehicles like SUVs pose a greater risk to pedestrians and cyclists in collisions, with children particularly vulnerable. By introducing size-based permit charges, we are encouraging the use of smaller, safer and cleaner vehicles.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Other changes include the introduction of parking charges on Weston Road in Bath and 24-hour parking charges at the city&#8217;s three Park &amp; Ride sites rising from \u00a33 to \u00a34 from 1 October for motorists not using the service.<\/p>\n<p>The council withdrew plans to extend parking charges at Bath Hill East car park in Keynsham to include Saturdays after feedback from residents and businesses highlighted concerns about impact on local footfall and affordability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Larger vehicles to pay more from August<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":45418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,47996],"coauthors":[160],"class_list":["post-45416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-transport","tag-bristol-and-bath","tag-featured-story"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Council introduces size-based parking permits to target SUV drivers - South West<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/45416-council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Council introduces size-based parking permits to target SUV drivers - South West\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Larger vehicles to pay more from August\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/45416-council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South West\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-23T11:47:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/aug_26\/Sion-Hill-6-Cropped_1800x1200.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rachel Covill\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rachel Covill\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/45416-council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/45416-council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers\",\"name\":\"Council introduces size-based parking permits to target SUV drivers - South West\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/45416-council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/45416-council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/aug_26\/Sion-Hill-6-Cropped_1800x1200.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-23T11:47:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-23T11:47:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/#\/schema\/person\/63e61e32be29ce8e5434e5e2d9bbb245\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/45416-council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/45416-council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/45416-council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/aug_26\/Sion-Hill-6-Cropped_1800x1200.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/aug_26\/Sion-Hill-6-Cropped_1800x1200.jpg\",\"width\":1800,\"height\":1200},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/45416-council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Council introduces size-based parking permits to target SUV drivers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/\",\"name\":\"South West\",\"description\":\"Regional business news for South West\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/#\/schema\/person\/63e61e32be29ce8e5434e5e2d9bbb245\",\"name\":\"Rachel Covill\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/a7efc8e315cac1dd567aee7d23b40bef\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/151e96e7eb9ebf7bb532b60545a038b8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/151e96e7eb9ebf7bb532b60545a038b8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rachel Covill\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/author\/rachelcovill\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Council introduces size-based parking permits to target SUV drivers - South West","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/45416-council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Council introduces size-based parking permits to target SUV drivers - South West","og_description":"Larger vehicles to pay more from August","og_url":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/45416-council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers","og_site_name":"South West","article_published_time":"2026-08-23T11:47:15+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1800,"height":1200,"url":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/aug_26\/Sion-Hill-6-Cropped_1800x1200.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Rachel Covill","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rachel Covill","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/45416-council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers","url":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/45416-council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers","name":"Council introduces size-based parking permits to target SUV drivers - South West","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/45416-council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/45416-council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/aug_26\/Sion-Hill-6-Cropped_1800x1200.jpg","datePublished":"2026-08-23T11:47:15+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-23T11:47:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/#\/schema\/person\/63e61e32be29ce8e5434e5e2d9bbb245"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/45416-council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/45416-council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/45416-council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/aug_26\/Sion-Hill-6-Cropped_1800x1200.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/aug_26\/Sion-Hill-6-Cropped_1800x1200.jpg","width":1800,"height":1200},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/45416-council-introduces-size-based-parking-permits-to-target-suv-drivers#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Council introduces size-based parking permits to target SUV drivers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/","name":"South West","description":"Regional business news for South West","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/#\/schema\/person\/63e61e32be29ce8e5434e5e2d9bbb245","name":"Rachel Covill","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/a7efc8e315cac1dd567aee7d23b40bef","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/151e96e7eb9ebf7bb532b60545a038b8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/151e96e7eb9ebf7bb532b60545a038b8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rachel Covill"},"url":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/author\/rachelcovill"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45416"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45419,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45416\/revisions\/45419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45416"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=45416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}