Royal Parks has confirmed that it intends to proceed with its proposals to introduce car parking charges at Bushy and Richmond Parks.

This will bring the two parks in line with the parking policies it has for all other Royal Parks.

The decision follows a public consultation which took place in 2021 and received over 12,000 responses.

However, to proceed with the decision, Royal Parks needs to await approval from the government, which it says is "unlikely to be in the near future".

If approved, parking will cost £1.40 per hour Monday – Friday and £2 per hour on Saturdays and Sundays.

There will also be a maximum of a six hour stay.

Blue Badge holders will be allowed to park for free for a maximum of six hours.

Royal Parks says that the revenue gained from these charges will be used for a variety of the parks' features, including:

• Car park resurfacing
• Maintaining park roads
• Improved pedestrian crossings
• Upgraded pedestrian gates
• Investing in mobility schemes
• Better wayfinding signage
• Installing traffic calming measures

A spokesperson for The Royal Parks said: "In 2021, following public consultation and approval from the previous Government, we announced that we would be introducing parking charges in Richmond and Bushy Parks. However, the implementation of parking charges also requires Parliamentary approval, and there was not enough time to get this change approved before the new Government came to power.

"We still firmly believe that charging for parking is the right thing to do, but we have not yet formally requested approval for this from the new Government."