Swan Walk car park had about 27,000 fewer paying visits in July and August while the centre was shut, and Horsham's main car parks took £58,000 less than in 2025.

The summer closure of Swan Walk shopping centre meant about 27,000 fewer paying visits to the Swan Walk car park, Horsham District Council says. The centre shut on 13 July over problems with its glass roof and reopened in stages through September.

The figures are in the council’s mid-year finance report, which went to its Finance and Performance scrutiny committee on Monday 2 November (Report on the Council’s Finance and Performance in Q2 2026/27).

What the closure did to parking

The council runs three main car parks in the town centre: Swan Walk, Piries Place and The Forum. The report says:

  • In July and August 2026, the three together took £532,000, against £590,000 in the same two months of 2025. That is a fall of 9.8%.
  • Swan Walk alone accounted for the whole fall.
  • Piries Place and The Forum stayed broadly stable, and together took slightly more than a year earlier.
  • Swan Walk recorded around 27,000 fewer paying visits over the period.

That last point matters. The council says only “a limited proportion” of the drivers who would have used Swan Walk went to its other car parks instead. Its evidence suggests the drop came from fewer visitors, not from people staying for shorter periods. In other words, many shoppers simply did not come into town.

The car park itself stayed open throughout. The report says parking activity and income “progressively recovered towards previous-year levels” as access improved and shops reopened, and calls the financial impact temporary.

Bar chart: income from Horsham District Council's three main town centre car parks was £590,000 in July and August 2025 and £532,000 in July and August 2026.
The 9.8% fall was all at Swan Walk. Chart by Horsham Daily
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The wider parking budget is still on track

The loss has not knocked the parking service off budget for the year. The council’s revenue monitoring forecasts parking services ending about £59,000 better than budget (Month 6 revenue forecast). The lost income at Swan Walk, and lower than expected income at Southwater Country Park, have been more than offset elsewhere. The report points to rural car parks and town centre season tickets, which have both done better than budgeted.

Other things in the report

The same report covers the council’s wider finances at the halfway point of the year:

  • A forecast operating surplus of £0.66m for 2026/27. At the same point last year it forecast £0.53m, and it ended the year £1.9m ahead.
  • A £2.54m developer debt on hold. One developer has appealed the amount of Community Infrastructure Levy it owes. The debt is now 60 days overdue, and the council says it cannot take recovery action until the appeal is decided. The report does not name the developer or the site.
  • A new cleaning contractor at The Capitol. The theatre’s cleaning contract was retendered before the reopening “due to dissatisfaction with the current contractor”. The Capitol reopens on 29 November; our Capitol reopening story has the details.
  • The Capitol refurbishment is listed among 13 capital projects completed or awaiting final invoices, and the report says it stayed within its agreed timetable and budget.

What it means for you

  • Swan Walk car park is open as normal, and so is the centre. Tariffs for it and the other town centre car parks are on our parking in Horsham page.
  • The parking budget has absorbed the loss this year, according to the council’s forecast, because other car parks did better than expected. The longer-term budget gap is a separate problem, covered in our story on the council’s £5.4m forecast gap.
  • For the town’s shops, the figures measure the hit. The council’s own reading is that 27,000 fewer paying visits in two months means fewer people came into town, not shorter stays.

Sources