Do you drive to work?

[POSTMAN]

Parking-space tax will raise cost of driving to the office by £350 a year!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/p ... 517668.ece" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Commuters face a £350 tax on workplace parking spaces in an attempt to encourage them out of their cars and on to public transport.

The tax is being planned as an alternative to congestion charging because it is thought to be much cheaper and easier to collect. Nottingham City Council is the first local authority planning to introduce the tax. Eight other councils, including Devon County Council, are understood to be considering similar schemes.

Under the Nottingham initiative, employers with more than ten parking spaces will have to pay the tax and most are expected to pass the cost on to staff.

The scheme is widely thought to be more politically acceptable. Unlike the Central London congestion charge, shoppers and other drivers who are not travelling to work will not have to pay.

The Government gave local authorities the power to introduce the tax under the Transport Act 2000 but none has yet done so because it was believed that congestion charging was the best way to control rising traffic levels. However, the 1.8 million-signature petition against congestion charging on the Downing Street website this year has prompted many authorities to reconsider.

Nottingham is also opting for the tax, known as the workplace parking levy (WPL), because the cost of collecting it would only amount to 10 per cent of total revenues. By comparison, more than 40 per cent of the revenue from the London congestion charge scheme is spent on running costs.

Nottingham council believes that the WPL would be less intrusive than congestion charging because the council would not need to know drivers’ details or movements. It is planning to spend most of the estimated £12 million annual revenue on funding two more tram lines to complement the highly successful tram line that opened in the city in 2004.

The council is in the final stages of a consultation and is holding a five-day public examination of the scheme from October 1. If approved, the WPL would be introduced in 2010 at a rate of £185 per parking space. It would rise steeply each year until it reached £350 in 2014. After that, increases would be pegged to inflation. The council expects employers to remove 10 per cent of their parking spaces, resulting in 4,000 fewer people commuting by car each day.

The WPL would be enforced by spot checks on workplace premises. Employers found to be in breach of the rules would be fined half the annual cost for each space not declared.

However, the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce is fiercely opposed to the WPL on the grounds that it might cause some employers to move out of the city. Similar claims were made by business groups before the introduction of the Central London congestion charge, which proved to be unfounded.

Boots, one of Nottingham’s biggest employers, which has 3,000 staff parking spaces, is opposed to the WPL but says that it is unlikely to move. Peter Gibson, the head of public affairs at Boots, said that the WPL was unfair because none of the planned public transport improvements would provide a door-to-door service for employees. One of the new tram lines would come close but staff would still be left with a long walk.

He said: “There is no real alternative to the car for many people. They would have to take a bus or tram into the city centre and then another one back out to our site.”

Barry Horne, the council’s director for city development, said that its staff and councillors would also be liable for the charge. “If you have to pay to park at work it will make you think twice about whether you should be commuting by car.”

[DGP1]

I'm not too sure how it'll work with RM though, the spaces are there for the vans (at least in my office) with only a few spaces for personal cars.

[andy2007]

The Tax is only payable, if there's more than 10 spaces available for Staff to park their cars. But what do they expect the Employers to do?
Block the entrance to the Car Park?
How would passing the cost onto the Staff work?
Would it be across the board, or just to those who park their cars there?

Far more importantly to me: Why should we be expected to give up Seatbelts, Crumple Zones, Airbags, Seatbelt Pre-tensioners, etc., etc.. Buses use 50 year old safety standards. So this is something that I believe that the CWU should be fighting! It's a matter of our Health and Safety. They should be protecting us, from this blatant attempt to penalise us, for wanting proper safety standards, in our transport to and from work.

If they subjected Buses and Trams, to the same crash testing that Cars undergo. Then I wouldn't have a problem with using it. Until they do, I will avoid Public Transport wherever possible.

[NWpostie]

Its complete and utter total wänk, its purely another revenue grab, as in Manchester, the residents of Manchester thankfully saw through the stupid scheme of congestion charging and kicked it out, as it would cost me to go into Manchester with the "possible" improvment of transport infrastructure will "may" materialise in 5 years, but more likely postponed for years on end for various reasons yet they couldn't wait to implement the scheme in double quick time with all the organisation and infrastructure to make it work

unlike London, which is pretty much the financial, commercial centre, its easier to move away from Nottingham, so I would imagine many firms will find it less of a hinderance to do so, costing Nottinghamm City Council far more in lost rates and revenue, than would be gained through this parking tax.

[Big Daz]

With RML creating bigger more centralised out of town mail centres and delivery offices we wont have the oppurtunity to walk or cycle as it will simply be too far. Early morning starting OPG's in delivery land wont have the option of public transport at that time of day.

My D.O is no more than 15 min cycle ride from the furthest urban del point so any member of staff living in the urban area can walk or cycle within a realistic timescale.

RML have started taking on people the last few times we have recruited for my D.O who do not live within walking or cycling distance as they live outside the D.O catchment area.

[Stormproof]

At my office the car drivers pay for parking (over £200 pa each), there is parking on site but not enough so a car park next door is used and the payment from everyone subsidises those extra spaces.

[flaminmoses]

thats right hit the poor who need to drive to work


this government needs booting out right now.
the right wing tory bastards