The Mid Sussex Council Cabinet met on 15 September 2025 and unanimously approved recommendations regarding budget management for 2025/26 and updates to the Parking Strategy Action Plan, including a concessionary charging policy and technology updates. Both sets of recommendations are subject to call-in¹.

Budget Management 2025/26

The Cabinet reviewed the forecast position against the approved revenue budget for 2025/26 at Quarter 1 (Q1). They noted a forecast underspend of £78,000 on service budgets and £20,000 on centrally held budgets. Treasury Management² returns continue to perform well, generating £554,000 in Q1 (net of £275,000 MTFP support).

The Cabinet agreed to the following recommendations:

• Noted the current forecast outturn and endorsed the report and its contents, including the use of Treasury Management receipts as proposed.
• Approved updates to the Capital and Revenue Programme, noted the current position, and approved the additional work set out in Paragraph 20 of the Q1 Budget Management 2025-26 report.
• Noted Performance reporting at Q1.

The report highlighted that the council's draft District Plan is in examination, and the council does not have a five-year land supply³, making the district vulnerable to speculative development and planning appeals. This is placing a strain on planning and legal services.

The report also noted pressures on services such as temporary accommodation⁴ and rising costs in digital and technology.

The consultation on Funding Reform 2.0, which aims to refresh the formula for distributing funding from central government to local authorities, ended on 15 August 2025. Early indications suggest this could be considerably worse than expected for the council.

Parking Strategy Action Plan

The Cabinet agreed to the recommendations set out in the Parking Strategy Update Concessionary Charging Policy report.

The recommendations were:

• Agreed the framework and proposals to provide subsidised concessionary permits for identified groups across the district, subject to an EqIA⁵;
• Agreed to the implementation of a Discretionary Charging Policy reflecting these arrangements; and
• Agreed the revised timeline for the implementation of village charges and technology trials.

The report proposed a concessionary parking fee framework for the council's car parks, tailored to local needs and informed by community engagement. It also provided an update on progress with key parking strategy actions, including the introduction of alternative management approaches in large village car parks and the implementation of parking technology trials to improve customer experience and efficiency.

The draft policy sets out the framework for the consistent application of subsidised concessionary permits for the council's car parks. The implementation of this policy will be supported by phased and targeted technology investment which will make the implementation and continuing management of concessionary parking policies more efficient, fair, and customer friendly.

The council have, on an ad hoc basis, historically offered concessions on fees and charges for, or fully funded access to, parking services in a variety of circumstances, including:

• Those working for a charity;
• Allotment users;
• Key public service workers; and
• To support temporary events.

The report recommends (subject to the completion of an EQiA) the implementation of the following permits:

• Resident permits: issued to individuals who can demonstrate they reside within ½ mile of the designated car park and that there is no personal parking provision available.
• Charity permits: issued to volunteers at registered charities with premises within ½ mile of the designated car park.
• Roving Healthcare permits: issued to organisations that can demonstrate they need parking facilities for a limited time whilst undertaking domiciliary medical care visits to residents less than ½ mile from any car park.
• Public Service permits: issued to organisations that can demonstrate they are a local authority, an NHS organisation or a care organisation with employment less than ½ mile from the designated car park.
• Overnight permits: issued to individuals who wish to park overnight in a designated car park.
• Fully funded permits: issued on a case-by-case basis to temporarily waive parking charges in support of an event.

The implementation of this policy will need to be supported by technology and financially and operationally it is more cost effective to implement that technology in parallel with the planned technology trials in the town centres. Therefore, an updated high-level timeline has been developed for both the roll-out of village charging (with appropriate supporting technology) and the implementation of the technology trials. This culminates in public consultation taking place in February 2026, followed by a go live date (subject to the outcome of that consultation) of May 2026 for both workstreams.

The report also provided a table of proposed village tariffs:

And a table of proposed village season tickets and virtual discs:

The subsidy committed to concessionary permits is currently estimated at approximately £380,000 per annum across the council's car parks, which equates to just under 15% of the annual income received from parking charges.

Other Matters Discussed

The Cabinet also:

• Approved the minutes of the previous meeting held on 30 June 2025.