They're [re]introducing parking charges at the Mill Yard, Staveley. There's apparently a 30 min grace period, but it'll now cost you a tenner to park their ride for longer than a few hours.
(Pic stolen from our cycle club chat.)
Is that all of it? I seem to remember there being different restrictions in different bits.
All of it, as far as I'm aware: Cameras on the way in/out.
Isn't there LOADS of free parking in/around Staveley anyway?
Aye, there are places round and about, but "Staveley [itself] is apparently going to have parking restrictions throughout the village."
They used to have a scheme whereby you could grab a longer parking pass if you were visiting any business there, which I hope they find a way to reintroduce alongside these charges. Stopping for a cheeky coffee and cake at More Bakery or lunch* at Wilf's Café ain't so attractive if it's gonna cost me £3 extra.
*Rarebit with black pudding FTW!
Oh great, now it'll fill up earlier up by the bridge where I usually park as everyone will understandable want to avoid fees.
I don't see 'no overnight parking' though...
I don’t see ‘no overnight parking’ though…
There are plenty of additional signs in the car park specifying no overnight parking. There did used to be a fairly out of the way spot around the side which often had a couple of vans parked up discreetly...
There's been charged parking there for a while but only during the week, you were supposed to get a ticket from one of the businesses to allow longer parking if required.
Shame cos that was always my free parking of choice in the South Lakes.
Fine.
We'll just stop popping in on our way past and invariably buying something and grabbing a bite.
We’ll just stop popping in on our way past and invariably buying something and grabbing a bite.
Likewise. I regularly pop into Wheelbase and to the bakery or the ice cream shop whilst passing. Having to pay for parking adds that touch of inconvenience to make me think "I can't be bothered stopping".
I believe last time they tried the local businesses got it stopped. I appreciate them charging for people there all day but they should be encouraging the passing trade.
It's just the owner of the mill yard getting greedy, loads of parking on the way into staveley in the laybys which is free,just a short road spin to get your legs warmed up. Then stop at wheelbase or for food on your bike on the way back then you don't have to pay the parking fee. Just please don't dump your cars/vans to block entrances or drives as its bad enough already . Still free after 6 so fine for night rides.
Be interested to know if this is also driven by the businesses feeling that a load of mtbers rocking up, spending a token amount on cake from More or Wilfs, and then buggering off for a half-day ride doesn't actually benefit them compared to having parking spaces available for other customers.
How many of the other shops are actually destinations in themselves though?
I reckon that apart from the bakery (which surely must be almost entirely local custom?), the rest of it is pretty dependent on Wheelbase.
Roadies ride to Wilf's a fair bit which doesn't affect parking or other custom in the slightest.
But I've seen loads of MTBers in the Hawkshead Brewery after a ride and if it's expensive parking, I suspect many of them will simply park at another pub somewhere and ride from there instead.
I reckon that apart from the bakery (which surely must be almost entirely local custom?)
As a visitor, the bakery is the only place I'll always spend money. Usually on pies to eat at the end of my ride (and a few more for later in the week).
Something ironic about taking pies back to Wigan 😀
Nearly as bad as the National Trust. They only take cash because they use the card reader part of the machine to scan membership cards. Last time we were in the lakes we went to Wheelbase and did some shopping and on the way home had some lunch at Wilf's won't bother if I have to pay by phone to park.
Sad really.
Be interested to know if this is also driven by the businesses feeling that a load of mtbers rocking up, spending a token amount on cake from More or Wilfs, and then buggering off for a half-day ride doesn’t actually benefit them compared to having parking spaces available for other customers
I suspect very much this. Compared to a few years back there seem a lot more customer facing businesses there now. Doesn't really work for them if the car park's full of mountain bikers who take space all day. though it's surprisingly expensive, and I'm surprised theres not an hour or two free
We have an office in the Mill yard. Where I agree the cost / time will impact the small number of businesses, Parking is historically a nightmare. The car park size cant cope with the volume of businesses on site.
We all have to log our registration plates, along with any accounts / clients visiting. So maybe there will be an option to support actual custom to those that are consumer facing. The cameras were being installed today and go live by end of month.
Thanks for the info, I usually go to more or wilfs when passing. Even during the week it's pretty busy with cars. Low sizergh farm shop just down the road towards kendal does a fab breakfast and you can park for free. Nice cakes to take away too.
I actually use the bus to get around the lakes as a foot passenger.
Wilfs veggie chilli is lovely though.
The sign doesn’t mention 30 mins free / grace. I feel the shops will be hit hard. I won’t be going to More or Wilfs if it’s an extra £3. Lots of other places to eat. One hour free would be a sensible option. Beyond 2 hours is fair game to charge. I give it a few months before a free period is introduced.
Wilfs veggie chilli is lovely though.
Legendary!
We never park there if riding - only to use the businesses. £3 for 1 hour is going to dent trade.
I won’t be stopping there anymore but I suspect plenty will. I just stop when passing by and by a couple of things but it is not worth the hassle of making a payment by phone. Shyster trick
I'm not against parking charges - why not? I'm leaving my car on your property all day. Only been once, met pals and we all drove. 3 spaces we used all day, had a couple drinks in the Brewery and left. Had it have been a tenner (and we knew) we'd have probably parked elsewhere and ridden through for a pint / food, freeing up those spaces for other custom(ers). Or paid up. £10 to ride locally and conveniently park close to facilities? I don't think that's unfair.
I've heard from a reliable source* that this has actually been instigated by BikeTreks Ambleside as part of their four point plan to corner the trade in cafes and drive by bike shoppers heading for the lakes
1) Close the Ambleside shop and open in Ings where everyone can see you as they drive past.
2) Open a cafe at the shop
3) Convince Millyard to start charging for parking to starve Wheelbase and Wilf's of their drive by trade.
4) Get that path on the hill by Ings reclassified as a bridleway to make Ings the logical starting point for the 3 passes route.
Job done.
* Made up entirely, by me, just now. 😝
it is not worth the hassle of making a payment by phone
But it's less hassle?
Park up, pay by phone, get out of car and go about your business.
Or park up, walk to payment machine, get ticket, walk back to car, put ticket in car, go about your business.
Ings the logical starting point for the 3 passes route
Been the logical starting point for me for a while, the millyard car park was often bloody hard work, needs the parking bays putting on a slight angle.
We don't park there to go riding, but we've usually got bikes and camping gear in the car, and often the grand kids with us.
Wheelbase was a good place to buy clothing and shoes, you can actually try stuff on and they have a decent selection.
Plus, it's officially 'on holiday', so buying outdoor kit isn’t really spending real money, like you would at home....🙂
A fiver for three hours isn't too bad really, but there are plenty of other places we can park for free, go gear shopping and grab some nice food.
They’ve gone full on greedy bastard there, bet the retail businesses are fizzing. An hour free would make the long stayers have to make a decision but without penalising shoppers. Just seems counterproductive to me
A shame if the phone payment link got vandalized.
Repeatedly.
A shame if the phone payment link got vandalized.
Repeatedly.
It would be shame if mountain bikers cars got vandalized when they've disappeared for the day thinking they can park for free on private land and there are workers or customers of the businesses unable to park.
There's clearly a shortage of parking here and a need to manage demand for it in some way. Land isn't free, tarmac isn't free, maintaining it isn't free. Why people think parking should be is beyond me (and that goes for the rest of the road system too in my view - should be parking in marked bays only, and chargeable, everywhere)
first world problems eh................
I’ve no problem in principle with paying to park - always felt a bit rude to park all day for a ride TBH, though we always spent a bit in wilfs - but a minimum of 3 quid seems a bit steep.
The thing is, there is no shortage of alternative on-street parking in Staveley, most of it within easy pedalling distance of the Mill Yard for pre or post-ride stuff. I'd be surprised if the landowner has done it without the approval of his tenant businesses.
First hour free or free after five for the Brewery would make more sense though.
Agree with @thecaptain
However, it would help if they waived the fee if you spent more than X quid in one of the local shops with some kind of code on a receipt. Not gonna happen though.
The thing is, there is no shortage of alternative on-street parking in Staveley, most of it within easy pedalling distance of the Mill Yard for pre or post-ride stuff.
I bet there's a new Controlled Parking Zone or double yellows or resident permit system going in alongside the Mill Yard charges, it'd be insane not to have that!
I kind of feel sorry for the residents of Staveley because that industrial estate smack in the middle of it is pretty much the entire source of all the traffic in the narrow village lane.
When I rock up in my 50K T6 to ride my 10K Santa Cruz, I simply can't bear to pay £10 to park for an entire day of fun.
I’ve heard from a reliable source* that this has actually been instigated by BikeTreks Ambleside as part of their four point plan to corner the trade in cafes and drive by bike shoppers heading for the lakes
Funnily enough, I've only been to Wheelbase once. That was because I'd been to BikeTreks and when they didn't have what I wanted they suggested I go to Wheelbase!
I have been told by a friend who works for a company that has offices and a shop on there that they are ‘challenging the guy that owns the mill yard about it’.
Not been implemented yet...
Over many years, I have spent a small fortune in Wheelbase and Wilfs and more recently in the brewery and the bakery and Inov8 because of the free parking at the mill. When coming back from a day in the lakes, it would make a good place to stop off for a drink/food/retail. There is no way I'd be stopping now at that price. I would think those businesses will struggle with the introduction of this charge.
If I wanted to park there all day, and not head futher into the lake district, then a small parking charge would make sense to limit numbers, but it's so expensive that I would carry on driving into the lakes and park somewhere else. Really, all day parking is only useful for people with bikes as the walking is not the most interesting in that area.
I reckon the village is (justifiably) worried that everyone will simply park for free down by The Eagle or on residential streets and ride/walk into The Mill Yard.
If there's going to be a charge there, especially as high as that, there need to be supporting measures locally to stop people parking up just round the corner, churning up the verges and potentially blocking off residential parking, deliveries etc.
Chatting today to riders who live in Staveley, some on street parking has gone residents only with more to follow. Understandable if you live there it'll be a right pain if everyone parks on street. Apparently some businesses in the yard are lobbying the site owner.
Downside is loss of trade to Ings or Ambleside...
Maybe a compromise would be refund of charge if spending over a certain amount - but essentially that means the yard owner gets paid, the shops loose the money.
Wonder how much a roll of "Not in operation" stickers cost...
Paying for parking is fair enough, but needs to be free for 1.5 hours. 30 mins isn't enough to use the businesses. I never really felt OK with freeloading for the whole day there.
Any updates on this folks?
Just asked my mate who works there. I'll come back to you when/if he replies.
Was there 2 weeks ago and payment is now required
Yep, my mate has confirmed that this is now the case.
That's a shame I used to visit quite frequently. Parking charges put me right off. Sad for the businesses, I heard the podcast about the blind chocolatier in the yard. I would have liked to support him. I would have gone with the free hour disk parking like Ambleside to deter all day parkers.
Thanks folks 👍🏻
Just arrived at Wilfs Cafe (by bike) and it's a very empty car park here! Normal weekend, it's been full of folk unpacking bikes from cars but there's only maybe a dozen or so cars.
<30 mins: free
Up to 1.5hrs: £3
Up to 3hrs: £5
Up to 10hrs: £10
However Wilfs did say they're still busy and at weekends they now open late (til 10pm) when parking charges don't apply.
TBF the price of parking pales into insignificance against the cost of a meal at Wilf's. Good food, but pretty pricey.
What the Lakes needs in general is a series of huge carparks at the periphery, on some underused fields, where tourists can leave their big lifestyle vans and oversized SUV's and proceed onwards into the park either by bike/ bus/ or tiny discreet electric cars.... would transform the place. Parking charges at the regular spots are already out of hand and charges like above must certainly affect business, 30 mins free isn't enough to concertedly stroke fancy product -better parking in general would allow businesses to keep their customers parking free... and keep their customers.
However Wilfs did say they’re still busy
Without knowing the specifics, in general, businesses overestimate the proportion of customers that come by car. And someone always pays for parking, whether that's the business, the council or the customers directly.
I always suspect the customer pays - by several routes simultaneously.
It was noticeable as I rode out of there how many people were parking on streets nearby and walking in. I reckon come summer time they're really going to have to crack down on that cos some of it was insane - across junctions, near residents driveways and so on.
where tourists can leave their big lifestyle vans and oversized SUV’s and proceed onwards into the park either by bike/ bus/ or tiny discreet electric cars
Falls down on the fact that many people / vehicles travelling into the Lakes are loaded with camping gear, kayaks, SUPs, bikes, kids... A family going MTBing at Grizedale for the day is not going to park at Kendal and ride up there or transfer all their biking kit into a Smart car...
I'd start by providing the facility for alternative transport, financially incentivise it - then for those that need to enter the park in their outsize lifestyle mobile I'd implement a fixed charge for entering the National Park just like they've done in many US nat parks for over half a century. The funds can be used to repair the infrastructure that the increase in quantity and size of vehicles has noticeably nerfed in recent years. Do that or alternatively add a tourist surcharge to all hotels, camping, airbnbs', just like many other worldwide hotspots already do and likewise use the funds to improve the infrastructure.
On the Staveley / Nan Bield ride with EMTB North West on Saturday 22nd June I accidentally paid for the parking 3 times because I was struggling to use the machine, costing me £30.
The new machine is paperless, so I had no indication that I had over paid until I checked my bank account.
Does anyone know who runs this car park and how I could contact them to try and get it back ?
I've often said these complicated bloody car park machines are a nightmare for grannies.
Good luck getting it sorted. The pic up the thread suggests "Your Parking Space"
YourParkingSpace - Find & Book Hourly, Daily & Monthly Parking
I’ve often said these complicated bloody car park machines are a nightmare for grannies.
Good luck getting it sorted. The pic up the thread suggests “Your Parking Space”
YourParkingSpace – Find & Book Hourly, Daily & Monthly Parking
I swear the people designing the UI for these things are the same people that hide the "reject-all cookies" button at the end of a 270 long list of add agencies you've never heard of [love your really Mark & STW].
The one for our local leisure center is particularly bad because nowhere does it actually give the option to "pay" for your 3 hours free parking. Just lots of signs saying that if you don't use the app you will be clamped. You just have to infer/assume/trawl through the small print that actually no one (staying < 3 hours) has to use the app FFS. But by that point you've already condemned everyone involved to Ark Ship B.
Falls down on the fact that many people / vehicles travelling into the Lakes are loaded with camping gear, kayaks, SUPs, bikes, kids… A family going MTBing at Grizedale for the day is not going to park at Kendal and ride up there or transfer all their biking kit into a Smart car…
The simple-ish solution to just put a toll on every vehicle moving within the park, and maybe offset that by making the majority of LDNP / Council / National Trust car parks free.
Keeps it cost neutral-ish for the people parking vaguely responsibly and deters/equalizes things out with those parking in places that don't then fund the parks infrastructure.
Then once you've driven to Grizedale and unloaded into a B&B / glamping pod / campsite you're encouraged to either explore locally by bike or get busses etc on the days when you don't need to be driving around with a car full of stuff.
Bringing this thread back to life - are there any overnight parking options around staveley now (not sleeping in my vehicle)?
Don't mind paying at all, more than happy to, but as I understand Staveley Mill Yard is now out of bounds for overnighters.
Putting together a bikepacking route for some old buddies and I in a couple of weeks time.
I did the dales way on foot, if you follow the route from say Burneside to staveley, then the other side towards ings, you should find some quieter spots. Maybe ask biketreks in ings if you park for a small fee.
People are amazingly price sensitive to parking. Our town center had a big problem. Free parking meant the prime places closest to the shops were 80% full by 9am by ship workers and commuters whose car was there for 9 hours. Nobody who wanted to use the shops could park.
Solved a few years ago by bringing in charges. £1 for 2 hours, with higher charges for long periods. You could now park there anytime.
There are also free supermarket carparks with max 2 hour parking. A bit less convenient for many shops but only a short walk away
Recently the minimum charge went up to £2. All of a sudden the council car parks are mostly empty. The supermarket carparks are rammed.
Really? Park further away to save £1?
These are car drivers in the 3rd wealthiest council area in Scotland changing behavior for a £1.
I walk a fair distance to avoid parking charges in the west end of Glasgow but that is £4 an hour not £1 an hour.
are there any overnight parking options around staveley now (not sleeping in my vehicle)?
Ping me a message if you didn't solve this already @bouncecycles
@poolman cheers bud
@irc paying isn't the issue, just that overnight parking is prohibited so ai can't leave my car and sleep on the fells
@chakaping will do.
I see the Hawkshead Brewery and Beer Hall at Staveley is closing. Switching production to Foxfield.
Wonder if the parking charges in anyway affected that decision.
It’s mentioned as one of there reasons. From FB:
Hawkshead is expanding our award winning beer brands into national grocery with recent wins for Windermere Pale Ale.
In order to be competitive on price we need to utilise our larger “state of the art” Krones Beer Line at our owned production site in Flookburgh, Cumbria.
The old small Brewery pub site at Staveley is leased and is not sustainable from an energy and efficiency point of view with manually operated equipment which will be unable to cope with the increased volumes.
In addition, we have renewed and increased the size of our delivery fleet of vehicles for our cask and keg business to allow a greater service outside of the Cumbria area.
The Brewery staff are being offered the possibility to relocate to the larger site which is 20 miles away which will also produce Crabbies Ginger Beer and Bankhall British whisky.
The Staveley Hawkshead Bar is also leased and is no longer profitable to operate due to the landlord applying new parking charges which has deterred customers, this will result in four permanent full time redundancies.
Halewood intends to invest in Hawkshead Beer to be available on Keg in our own Distillery Bars in Liverpool, London and Bristol.
All the core Hawkshead Beers will continued to be produced from Cumbria and we expect a smooth transition over to the Flookburgh site that has produced Hawkshead beers in the past.
Sadly The Beer Hall will be closing as of today. From all the team at Hawkshead Brewery we would like to thank everyone who has passed through our doors and shared in the amazing memories over the years. We are so grateful for all the support and a special thank you our locals (extended family) ❤️?
Sad but understandable I suppose.
I popped in there last month to show my GF the yard and pick up some pies from More.
Disappointed to see they'd turned More into a sit-down cafe with no pie counter, and it felt like there were fewer of the other units occupied or open.
Big queue for coffee and we had to dash off to meet our 30 mins parking time.
Big queue for coffee and we had to dash off to meet our 30 mins parking time.
Or you could've just paid the £3 charge - how much was the coffee?
Or you could’ve just paid the £3 charge – how much was the coffee?
Tempted to tell you to sod off and stop being a sanctimonious prick, but instead I'll give a straight answer.
We only intended to grab a pie and cuppa, expecting to be 20 mins or so.
As it dragged towards 30 mins I said "shall I put some money in the machine?" and she said "no, let's go and climb a hill".
So we did.
HTH
I ate in wilfs recently, everyone who came in and ordered asked about the parking charges and whether they would be served and finished in the free hour.
Also, passed through staveley today on the bus and the residents down by the river, I assume the nearest no restriction parking, have put cones out to stop parking.
A lot of the blame for Hawkshead closing in Staveley is being placed firmly at the door of owners Halewood. They bought the company a while back and have been mismanaging it ever since. Laid off the original brewers (during Covid, classy move) who went on to form Lakes Brew Co.
The closure of the brew hall this week has happened with no notice to anyone, staff included. So while the parking charges may be a factor, by heck it’s been handled incredibly badly