Each year a residents’ parking permit scheme is set up in the streets around Heaton Park for the massive Parklife Festival.
The aim is to minimise the impacts on residents as tens of thousands of people descend on the area for a weekend of music.
But figures released after this year’s event suggest that the scheme is not working.
A Freedom of Information request reveals that 414 fines were issued for breaches at Parklife 2026, and 81 of these were later withdrawn.
Residents in the area said the event is ‘out of control’, with a number of people telling the Local Democracy Reporting Service that some event-goers are actively ignoring the parking restrictions because the cost of the fine – particularly when split between four or five passengers – is worth risking.
Two residents living within the parking zone said they have previously stopped drivers to warn them about the restrictions, only to be told the charge each was low enough that it “doesn’t matter”.
![]()
Parklife Parking Scheme (Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service)
Another pair of residents likened the fee to the cost of a beer – £6.30 for a bottle of Corona at the festival – when divided five ways.
Fines start at £70, Bury Council has said. However, these are understood to reduce to £35 if paid within two weeks.
Bury Council issued 344 fines for breaches of the scheme in 2026, with Manchester City Council issuing a further 70.
Of these, 78 and three were cancelled without need for payment by the two authorities respectively.
Bury Council said, while it did not have precise figures, it believes the number of fines handed out this year was a slight reduction from previous years.
Parklife is one of the country’s biggest music events, with around 80,000 people attending each day of the two-day June festival.
This year’s line-up included big names in the electronic, hip hop and pop world such as Skepta, Zara Larsson and Calvin Harris.
“It’s absolutely out of control,” one resident who just gave his name as Michael said. He lives at the edge of the park with his young family.
He added: “They didn’t have enough people monitoring the roads, stopping people, or they’re taking some student, sticking him on there with no instructions, not telling him to refuse cars.”
He believes other places in Manchester should be considered as the location for the festival or, if it stays in Heaton Park, the gates into residential areas should be closed off, and organisers should instead use the entrance by the Sainsbury near Junction 19 of the M60.
The issues extend beyond just parking problems, Michael added.
He said: “They don’t really care about the local residents. People are coming here; they’re taking all sorts of funny stuff; there are unsociable things.
“They’re overusing the resource (Heaton Park), and they need to start looking at using other parks that are in Manchester or taking a field somewhere out in the countryside and turning that into Parklife. It’s gone ridiculous.”
“They’re not bothered about fines,” David Cotton, 69, said.
“If there’s four of them in the car, they’ll just park anywhere, and they’ll just share the fine.”
“If you’re going to get fined £35 and it’s £6 a pint, that’s the cost of five pints, isn’t it?” Joan Hamilton added.
They believe that parking should be set up in Heaton Park itself for events like Parklife.
Ms Hamilton added: “Just spread it out a bit more. I remember going years ago to Bonfire Night, and they had parking in Heaton Park. It took ages to get out, but we had it.”
Catherine Cooper, 79, and Anne Bentley, 75, spoke more positively about the festival and other events held at Heaton Park, saying they love to sit out with a glass of wine and wave at people as they go by.
But they too raised some concerns about the impact the events have locally.
Ms Bentley said: “At 12 o’clock at night when they empty the park, there’s a big massive crowd going down the road. There are hundreds. But they (the organisers) do clean up now, I’ll give them that. They never used to.”
Parking in the area is often difficult, even when events are not on, the ladies said. While residents get a permit through the door ahead of the events, Ms Cooper said, they have ‘never’ had anyone come out to discuss the issues and potential solutions with them.
She added: “We have spoken in the past to cars that come up and we say ‘you’ll get a fine’ and they say ‘oh well, there’s five of us, so it’s only a fiver each. It doesn’t matter’.”
People also use the bushes across the road from their homes as a toilet or a place to do drugs, she said, adding: “It is very unpleasant when you’re sat in your living room watching telly and you look across and all you can see is girls’ bottoms.”
Patrick Boyle, 45, lives and works in the area around Heaton Park. He said the issues are not too bad around his home, but there can be issues around his workplace in Bent Lane.
Mr Boyle, who works at Beech House care home, added: “We’ve had nightmares regarding people coming onto our grounds and urinating. It’s quite noisy, it can be quite disruptive, but it only happens once a year.”
![]()
Patrick Boyle, 45, Heaton Park Resident. (Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service)
However, he believes it is down to festival-goers to sort the problems rather than the organisers, saying people need to be a bit more “respectful of the area”.
When it comes to the permit scheme, he felt the greater difficulty is if you need to get a taxi because they are not allowed down some of the blocked-off roads.
On the fines, he added: “To be quite honest with you, with the cost of travel like trains and stuff like that, it probably nine times out of 10 will be cheaper to take the fine than to pay for travel, so I can completely understand that.
“Especially if you’ve got say five people in your car, you just split the fine between the five of you.”
The Local Democracy Reporting Service contacted Bury Council, Manchester Council and Parklife management company Engine No.4 for comments.
Bury Council said the permit scheme was run under the direction of Manchester Council, adding there was a debrief each year to discuss changes for future events.
Manchester council said Engine No.4 was in charge of managing the scheme and the query was better directed to them.
The LDRS had not received a response from Engine No.4 at the time of publication.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login