Westhay Car Parking

Somerset Wildlife Trust has taken the decision to introduce a car parking charge for all visitors using our Westhay Moor National Nature Reserve car park. We have awarded Park with Ease a three year contract to deliver the service, who will install the ticketing machine at the car park.

The parking charges are effective from 18 January 2024.

It will cost £3 per visit to park at the Westhay Moor National Nature Reserve car park. Season tickets will be available at the following charges. £65 for an annual pass and £40 for 6 months and are available to purchase from pweparkingpermits.co.uk.

Park with Ease have installed a solar-powered ticketing machine and all instructions are located on the machine itself and associated signage.  Payment will be by credit or debit card. The machines will also be able to take payments by mobile phone. If a visitor has neither with them, it will be possible for the visitor to pay within 24 hours when they return home - please visit www.parkwithease.co.uk/m/make-a-payment.aspx

Season tickets for regular visitors are available to purchase from pweparkingpermits.co.uk

The Park with Ease system uses an ANPR camera (automatic number plate recognition). It will record number plates as they enter and leave the car park and Park with Ease will therefore monitor this and the associated payments.  Non-payments will be managed by Park with Ease, who will deal with all related issues and, where relevant, any correspondence with visitors. Somerset Wildlife Trust staff or volunteers on the site have nothing to do with the administration of the Park with Ease contract so will not be able to intervene or resolve any parking related issues on site.

• It costs us £803,000 a year to manage our nature reserves at a time when costs are increasing year on year.  The modest amount of income we believe the charges will generate here is really important to us and will help us carry out crucial conservation work that is needed on this very special reserve that is loved by so many.
• Thanks to a grant, we were able to upgrade the car parking surface at Westhay in 2021. We need to raise ongoing funds however to ensure that we are able to maintain the car park, and to the quality we know our visitors have now come to expect across all seasons. 
• Since we have upgraded the car parking surface for members’ and visitors’ benefit, we have experienced an uptick in instances of antisocial behaviour, including car theft and the car park being used a little like a race track.  The surface was not introduced with this use in mind and therefore is deteriorating more rapidly than it should be.  The introduction of an ANPR based system will deter those using the vehicles in this manner and will also deter other antisocial behaviour such as car break-ins.
• We want as many people to enjoy Westhay as possible. As the car park is the only free one in the area, it is being used by those not even visiting the reserve, thus taking spaces away from those that do want to spend time there.
• Car parking is not perceived as an ‘exciting’ item to fundraise for, and due to its unobtrusive nature, it is also little recognised how costly parking infrastructure is to repair. Raising money from a car parking fee is the most sensible and direct way to fund the ongoing maintenance needed for the longer term.

All visitors, including Somerset Wildlife Trust Members, including Blue Badge holders will need to pay for their parking in the car park.

The costs just to maintain our reserves and the associated infrastructure continue to increase year on year and improvements such as these have to be funded in a range of different ways. We know that our members understand this and thus, will understand why we have had to introduce an additional parking charge which is on top of their membership fee.  Evidence from other Trusts that have introduced parking charges have indicated that the majority are supportive in the knowledge that it is helping restore nature in this very special place.

From a practical perspective, there is no way for our members to physically prove that they have an active membership with the Trust. We stopped issuing membership cards some years ago so that the administrative cost of issuing these cards could instead be put towards our conservation work. We also do not hold car registration numbers on our database. To establish a system to both identify our members to Park with Ease and to administer internally would be costly and time-consuming.  Furthermore, there would also be an impact on our ability to claim Gift aid, as well as at least a proportion of membership income being payable to HMRC as VAT. Maintaining the detailed records that HMRC would need from us, would create an administrative burden that an organisation of our size cannot practically accommodate.

We are aware that other charities offer free parking for members, but these tend to be larger national charities that have much more administrative capacity and the ability to offset far greater sums of money.

We are not looking to apply car parking charges at our other reserves at this point in time.