Forestry England looks after over 1,500 woods and forests. This includes around half of the New Forest National Park including most of its green space that is accessible to the public. We probably do much more here than you think.
Our work includes planting thousands of trees, conserving wildlife, managing vegetation and restoring heathlands and rivers. We help millions of people each year enjoy the area by providing hundreds of miles of paths and cycle routes,10 campsites and 130 car parks across the forest. Our rangers patrol the area every day of the year and help address anti-social behaviour including fly-tips and preventing wildfires.
Caring for the New Forest is a big job and costs millions of pounds every year.
Car parking changes at the New Forest
As an organisation, we currently receive less than 20% of our core funding from the government with the rest having to be found from our own activities including things like timber sales and car parking charges. In Spring 2026, parking charges will be introduced at all of our car parks in the New Forest.
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Questions you may have
Forestry England looks after around half of the New Forest National Park including most of its green space that is accessible to the public. Its work includes tree planting, conserving wildlife, managing vegetation, and restoring heathlands and rivers. It helps millions of people each year enjoy the area by providing hundreds of miles of paths and cycle routes, 10 campsites, and 130 car parks across the forest. Its rangers patrol the area every day of the year and help address anti-social behaviour including fly-tips and preventing wildfires.
Forestry England manages and cares for the nation’s forests. It currently gets less than 20% of its core funding from the government with the rest having to be found from its own activities including timber sales and car parking charges.
Caring for the New Forest has become increasingly expensive. This includes the price of materials needed to repair and maintain car parks which have increased by more than 50% over the last three years. At the same time, higher levels of damage to trails and car parks have been caused by prolonged bad weather and increasing usage.
We can no longer continue to carry out this work without additional funding.
Charging for car parking will play a vital role in us being able to continue to look after this precious landscape for everyone to enjoy.
The money raised by parking charges will help us continue our critical work in the New Forest and avoid closures of car parks or trails. The scheme will also significantly boost the numbers of rangers on patrol to look after the Forest.
The price of parking will be in line with other similar locations in the area. Prices will start at £1.50 for one hour, £3 for 2 hours, £5 for 4 hours and £8 for over 4 hours.
Tickets will be transferrable between all Forestry England car parks in the New Forest making it easy to visit several locations with one payment.
Recognising the importance of the New Forest to the local community and regular visitors, there will be a discounted parking scheme in place. An annual Forestry England membership will enable people to park as often as they like for the less than £2 a week. It will be possible to pay for membership as a one-off yearly payment or via a monthly direct debit of £8 to help spread the cost.
More information about membership will be provided ahead of parking being introduced in the New Forest in the spring of 2026.
We have a number of disabled parking spaces in the New Forest. These allow blue badge holders to park close to their destination. We also provide accessible trails in many locations across the New Forest and these cater to a range of abilities.
Parking charges will apply to all vehicles, including blue badge holders, and the money raised will help to look after the New Forest and maintain facilities for people to enjoy the area.
Parking in the heart of the New Forest is only permitted in official Forestry England car parks and not on verges, in car park gateways, or in front of access points and barriers. This is to prevent damage and erosion to the Forest.
We already have an ongoing programme in place where irresponsible parking in areas at risk of damage and erosion is deterred through the use of wooden bollards and ditches.
The introduction of the car park charging scheme will provide additional powers to protect these areas, including the ability to enforce. It will also boost our staff on the ground by establishing a new and dedicated team to monitor irresponsible parking.
A grace period of 15 minutes will apply in car parks before charges apply. This enables anyone dropping someone off, or not able to find a parking space and needing to exit, to do so within this timeframe without being charged.
We want to ensure the scheme is sensitive to the natural environment of the Forest so are limiting the amount of equipment needed. The main way to pay for parking will be via mobile phone using the RingGo app.
We will have payment machines accepting contactless card payments in a few of the larger car parks but these will not be used elsewhere to be in keeping with the natural forest setting.
To deal with any problems with mobile signal, people can simply pay later at home using RingGo until midnight the day after their visit.
Visitors will not need a smartphone to pay for parking. Other ways to pay include through the RingGo website or by calling the RingGo dedicated phone number. Alternatively, regular visitors may be interested in buying a Forestry England membership. Once signed up as a member there is nothing else that needs to be done, you will automatically be registered for free parking.
The introduction of parking charges in the New Forest will not make any changes to where horse boxes and trailers can park within our car parks. All vehicles will be charged the same fee to park which can either be paid on each visit or via a Forestry England membership costing around £8 a month.
A dedicated team will monitor the scheme and be on hand to provide information on how to use the new system. They will also help protect any locations being used for unofficial, damaging or dangerous parking including at entrances to car parks, at access points to forest properties and on verges.
The New Forest will join many other forests across the country where Forestry England already charges for parking to help fund our work to care for the nation’s forests.
Charging for parking, subject to the appropriate consents being in place, could begin in spring 2026.
More information on charges, membership and timescales will be shared as plans develop and all necessary consents are in place. Updates will be provided on this page.
Sign up to our mailing list using the below form to receive more information on membership ahead of charging beginning.