Ten free council car parks, seafront tariffs of £1.20 an hour and £4.80 all day, the Sunday on-street rule, and the car park by Spanish City that isn't the council's.

Whitley Bay has more free parking than most seaside towns its size, and the catch is that the free spaces are the ones with maximum stays, while the ones without a time limit charge every day of the week including Sunday. Get that the wrong way round and you get a £50 ticket.

Every tariff below is taken from North Tyneside Council’s own record for that car park or street, checked on 15 August 2026 and linked so you can see the same page.

The free council car parks

These take no payment at all. Watch the maximum stays, because the council enforces “no return” periods with a £50 penalty (enforcement policy, contravention 22).

Car park Spaces Free when Limit
Brierdene, The Links NE26 4NF 245, plus 10 disabled, 9 coach, 3 motorcycle, 5 motorhome All days 4 hours, no return within 2 hours
Waves, The Links NE26 1TQ 125, plus 7 disabled, 2 coach All days 2 hours between 9am and 6pm, no return the same day
Playhouse, Marine Avenue NE26 1LZ 75, plus 5 disabled All days None listed
Whitley Lodge, Claremont Crescent NE26 3HL 77 All days None listed, 3.5 tonne limit
Hillheads Road, Rink Way NE25 8HU 90 All days None listed, 3.5 tonne limit
Cauldwell Avenue NE25 9RW 58, plus 2 disabled All days None listed, 3.5 tonne limit
Hawthorn Gardens NE26 3PQ 19 All days None listed
Whitley Road NE26 2ND 21 All days 2 hours Mon to Fri 8am to 6pm, no return within 4 hours
Back of Park View NE26 2TH 16 All days 2 hours Mon to Fri 8am to 6pm, no return within 4 hours
Coronation Crescent NE25 8AJ 25 All days 2 hours Mon to Sat 8am to 6pm, no return within 4 hours

Back of Park View is reached from Roxburgh Terrace, behind the Park View shopping centre. Hillheads Road is signed as Rink Way, next to the ice rink.

The paid seafront car parks: £1.20 an hour, £4.80 all day

Every charged council car park in Whitley Bay uses the same tariff:

  • £1.20 for one hour
  • £2.40 for two hours
  • £3.60 for three hours
  • £4.80 all day

They operate all days 9am to 6pm, so Sunday and bank holidays are charged. Blue Badge holders and motorcycles park free in each of them, and they are card or mobile phone only, with no coin slot.

Car park Spaces Notes
Bournemouth Gardens, The Links NE26 1QQ 204, plus 3 disabled 4 rapid and 2 fast EV bays
Dukes Walk, The Links NE26 1TQ 37, plus 2 disabled Cars and light vans only
Park Road NE26 1LT 72, plus 7 disabled Was free until this year, see below
Spanish City, Link Road NE26 1BG 97, plus 8 disabled 10am to 6pm, an hour later than the rest
Mini Golf, The Links NE26 4NQ 24 Cars and light vans only
St Mary’s Island North NE26 4RS 138, plus 3 disabled Coaches pay per bay occupied
St Mary’s Island South NE26 4RS 61, plus 5 disabled Coaches pay per bay occupied

The Spanish City trap

The council’s own Spanish City car park gives free parking to Blue Badge holders. The car park immediately next to it is privately run and charges everyone, including Blue Badge holders. That warning is on the council’s listing for the site, and the two are easy to confuse from the road. Read the sign before you leave the car.

On-street: free on Sundays, and two different rates

Pay and display bays in Whitley Bay operate Monday to Saturday, 9am to 5.30pm. Outside those hours they are free, which is why on-street parking in the town centre is free all day on a Sunday, while the seafront car parks are still charging.

There are two rates, and neighbouring streets can differ:

  • 50p an hour, no maximum stay: Beach Avenue, Brook Street, Coquet Avenue, Duchess Street, Duke Street, Holly Avenue, Marine Gardens, Ocean View, Oxford Street numbers 2 to 48, Park Avenue, Park Parade and Roxburgh Terrace.
  • 2p a minute, which is £1.20 an hour, no maximum stay: Clifton Terrace, Fern Avenue, Jesmond Terrace, Laburnum Avenue, North Parade, Oxford Street numbers 50 to 96, Station Road and Victoria Terrace.

Oxford Street is split down the middle: the low numbers are 50p an hour and the high numbers are more than twice that. Most of these bays are coin or mobile phone only, with no card reader.

The exception to the Monday to Saturday rule is Spanish City Link Road, which charges the full £1.20 an hour tariff all days 9am to 6pm.

Every charged bay in the borough works with RingGo, using the zone code on the sign. There is no longer a convenience fee for paying that way, though optional text alerts are charged by RingGo.

What changed this year

North Tyneside consulted on Whitley Bay parking changes in January 2026, proposing pay and display at both the Playhouse and Park Road car parks at the standard £1.20 to £4.80 tariff, plus a £30 annual charge for a first resident permit in shared use zones (North Tyneside Council, 20 January 2026).

As of today the council’s live records show Park Road charging at that tariff, and Playhouse still free. The £30 resident permit charge is in the current permit guidance. If you last parked at Park Road for nothing, that has changed.

The same consultation said a ticket bought under the new arrangement would be valid across other council-managed seafront car parks, so drivers could move between them without paying again. We have not found a council page confirming which car parks that now covers in practice, so check the sign before you rely on it.

If you park at the Metro

All three local Metro station car parks are free, and none of them is huge:

  • Whitley Bay, off Station Square at the Victoria Terrace junction: 76 spaces, plus four accessible bays outside the entrance by the taxi rank.
  • Monkseaton, off Norham Road: 22 spaces, one accessible.
  • Cullercoats, at the Station Road entrance: 22 spaces, one accessible.

Source: Travel North East station pages. The Whitley Bay car park is operated by North Tyneside Council. Note that Station Road itself is a 2p a minute pay and display street, so parking on the road outside the station is not the same as parking in the car park.

Permits

  • Resident permit: £30 a year, maximum three per property. These are virtual, so there is nothing to display; your registration goes on the enforcement officers’ database. Whitley Bay’s shared use pay and display zones are WB1, WB2, WB3 and WB5; the permit only exempts you inside your own zone (permit guidance).
  • Residents’ visitor permit: £30 a year, one per household. This one is paper and must be displayed. A replacement is another £30 unless you have a police crime reference number for a theft.
  • Scratch card vouchers for visitors, tradespeople, landlords and hotels, sold in sheets of five. Each gives three hours, and they are only valid in permit holders only bays, never in a pay and display bay even where permit holders are exempt. Allow five working days to process.
  • Motorcycles never need a permit.

Blue Badge

A Blue Badge costs £10 and normally runs three years. The council is specific that it is automatically valid for on-street parking but not automatically valid in off-street car parks, so check each car park; the Whitley Bay coastal ones listed above do give free parking, and the private one by Spanish City does not.

Blue Badge holders may park up to three hours on single or double yellow lines where there is no loading ban and no obstruction. The badge is only valid when the holder is in the vehicle; using it after dropping them off carries a fine of up to £1,000 (using your Blue Badge).

If you get a ticket

Penalty charges are set nationally, not by the council: £70 for the higher band, £50 for the lower, both halved to £35 or £25 if you pay within 14 days of service, or 21 days if the notice came by post. A bus lane ticket is £60, or £30 within 21 days.

Two pieces of practical detail buried in the council’s enforcement policy that are worth knowing:

  • On an expired ticket or an overstay (codes 05 and 30), a penalty is only issued once you are more than 10 minutes over.
  • An officer on foot will give a verbal warning first if you are still at the car, or come back to it, before they finish entering your details.

Pay, appeal or view the officer’s photographs through the council’s PCN service.

Along the coast

If you are driving on to Tynemouth, one local rule is worth carrying. Percy Park, Percy Park Road and Seafield View charge on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays only, 9am to 6pm, at the same £1.20 to £4.80 tariff. They are free on a weekday, which is the opposite of what most visitors assume. Priors Haven car park on Pier Road is free, with a two hour limit Monday to Friday, and Front Street parking is 2p a minute all days with a two hour maximum.