“A poll tax on wheels” – Edmund King president of the AA.
In what seems to be yet another indirect tax on the motorist, a number of local councils are investigating proposals to charge up to £1,000 per parking space for businesses within their catchment area.
The Workplace Parking Levy (WPL) is already in force in Nottingham, and cities such as Bristol, Cambridge and Reading, along with the London boroughs of Brent, Camden and Merton are looking to introduce similar, all under the ‘anti-pollution’ tag.
Going green
It’s true that Britain has one of the highest congestion levels in western Europe, and according to a number of government sources, it’s that which is causing the rise in pollution; slow moving traffic. Strange that The City of London Corporation is looking to slow traffic down in a bid to help the air-pollution level.
At least ten councils are considering the WPL, and in Scotland, both Edinburgh and Glasgow have made it clear that they want to introduce it, but not everyone agrees. In 2018, Greater Manchester rejected a proposal for a workplace parking levy, and just recently, Robert Halfon, Conservative chairman of the Commons education select committee branded it as madness.
“This is complete madness. It’s yet another tax on the motorist, and all it will do is hit working people with the cost of living. It’s entirely the wrong thing to do”.
Edmund King agrees: “We need incentives on electric vehicles, not a tax on work to drive businesses out of town, or out of business. Workplace parking levies could become the new poll tax on wheels”.
How it works
While there is still some debate over the final revenue structure and pricing, the expected charge is between £500 – £1,000 pa, per space, and it will only be charged to those companies with more than ten parking spaces available to their employees. Nottingham currently charges £387 pa, but around 50% of the businesses charged, pass it directly to their employee.
What isn’t clear is what would happen if all of the employees decided to use another form of transport to commute; would the business still be charged? Or how could they dispute the charge?
Since its introduction in 2012, Nottingham has raised a further £53.7 million in revenue. While some reports say that CO2 levels have fallen by as much as 33%, it’s widely accepted that this isn’t solely due to the WPL. Public transport usage is now among the highest in any UK city, but it’s also worth pointing out that Nottingham City Council is the majority shareholder of the local bus company.
Further still, there is a possibility of a conflict of interest; matched funding is a common source of income for any council, this means that councils introducing the WPL could use that as a way of generating further monies – anywhere up to £3 – £4 per £1 brought in locally, meaning that an ulterior motive may have some influence in the decision.
The true cost
A study by Centre for Cities looked at just how councils can raise further revenue, from basic taxation through to more subtle methods, such as the WPL. They go on to say that although the workplace parking levy may be less efficient at raising revenue, or even reducing congestion, a London-style congestion charge is politically more contentious and expensive to establish.
They also suggest that councils need to start thinking about new revenue streams now before the ‘traditional link between increase in road use and fuel duty revenue weakens’.
While the workplace parking levy is being considered, let’s call it what it is – a tax on the motorist – we should understand that city centre retail businesses and manufacturing / commercial businesses are already struggling under the weight of financial obligation, and in all ways, this will further that strain.
Even passing the cost on to an employee would mean a higher chance of that employee looking for work elsewhere, leading to admin, onboarding and training costs. Using Nottingham as an example, 500 companies are affected, these companies bring in £9,000,000 pa in WPL charges, or £18,000 each as an average.
While one can agree that congestion is bad, or that air-pollution levels are in need of some serious help, if we’re genuinely looking toward the green argument, then surely the way forward is to incentivise cleaner technology, not punish those that are already struggling to fund a cleaner vehicle?
What do you think of the WPL idea? Is this just another indirect tax on the motorist? Let us know in the comments.
This is yet another tax on working people this will make more to think they would be better off on the dole as stated by Cameron you should not be worse off working than on the dole maybe someone should tell the government and counsels and try to keep people want to keep going to work not rip them off.
Exactly what I was going to say, won’t affect those on benefits or the school run, where they shold walk. They were going to introduce it where I worked but we’re going to charge everyone. Didn’t help cyclists, car sharers or bus users. Barmy!
I am starting to think that way. Why work at all . I feel like a mug because I am getting mugged by taxes more and more.
The same in HE we at the Manchester Metropolitan University have been charged for over 5 years now and get nothing in return no extra security or CCTV park at owners risk, give a small pay rise with one hand and take with the other TAX on the working class.
Rather than punish car usage, surely it’s better to reward non-car usage. Provide cheap no-brainer park n ride, offer cheap season tickets, make parking charges such that all day is high compared to just a few hours.
But to charge businesses, who may or may not pass it on, could just mean more and more out of town office premises, causing extra traffic elsewhere instead, like we already have with retail parks and shopping malls.
All this does is move the traffic and create congestion elsewhere on roads that should be free flowing. Look at A34 in South Manchester, which should be a bypass but instead it can get get full of crawling shoppers mixed with commuters and through traffic. Or Trafford Centre, which has the same effect on the M60, which is supposed to be a motorway but at times is unable to function like one.
Yet again, motorists are a convenient and easy to identify source of revenue and the resulting ‘green’ benefits are dubious. Try to walk alongside a queue of buses without feeling sick from the filthy air, and then you have to wonder how green that can be.
Manchester is slowly becoming more and more congested. I am fairly sure that this is a precursor to another attempt to put a congestion charge onto the city. It does not of course help that Manchester is riddled with bus lanes, which take up valuable road space and create congestion, whilst not actually being extensive enough to give free passage to buses everywhere
Given that at peak times a bus lane can carry 9 times the number of people that a car lane can then Manchester needs to extend it’s bus lane network
TedW, you are assuming their is actually any buses running to use the lanes…. in manchester the number of buses is “minimal” to say the least. As Dan said… the idiotic 100 yard bus lanes just snarl up the traffic.
I wouldnt recommend anyone to go to manchester.. for work or play….
What i find hard to swallow is that the govm’t are pushing or everyone to go electric yet they haven’t bothered to sort out the infrastructure for this transition!!
if we all went on to electric cars within the next 12 months, we would all be in a complete mess, with nowhere to charge your car other than at home etc!
the govm’t are completely useless and base their decisions on nothing more than whims with no serious investigative or scientific research carries out…
line them all up and put a bullet between their eyes i say! lets start from scratch…………….. cant be ANY worse than what we have in place at the moment…..
The solution to this should be that the govm’t use the road taxation they rape from the motorist to actually sort out the infrastructure to carry a vastly higher qty of electric cars, then on the back of this, all car manufacturers should be made to sell electric cars with a massive discount, so ALL people from ALL walks of life can buy into the new clean regime, or at least provide some kind of affordable hire purchase agrreement.
This will never happen in a capitalist market though as all people want is profit – Including the govm’t.
I have said it before and now I say it again. There should be a day of action whereby everyone except public transport operators and emergency services leave the car at home and use only public transport. The ensuing chaos might just make the government and councils realise just how woefully inadequate our transport system is and to improve it along with better and cheaper considerations for motorists.
Think of the economics though. If there’s lots more public transport and it’s a lot cheaper, who’s going to pay? It would need highly subsidising, and who pays for that? I can imagine the person who *has* to drive to work objecting somewhat to having to pay twice. Wouldn’t you?
Public transport is not a lot cheape3r it is far more expensive that using a car it my case to use public transport is 315 a day so te car is so much cheaper
sorry should have read £15
Not knowing the car and age you drive the cost of the mpg off said car but I’d guess over 6 years there is not alot in it
As regards reliability, comfort etc then in a comparison the car rules every time.
Yep I drive to work, have damaged my car trying to park at work in the inadequate car park. I am expected to do home visits, every day and work across sites for the trust. I strongly feel if they do want to charge me to park a nominal fee is fine, but no to higher costs. I am very aggrieved the mileage in the NHS is so low and if you exceed 3500 miles per year (roughly) you are reduced down to 25p per mile from 45p. I feel I already pay to use my car for work as I have to pay for business insurance – which puts up my insurance costs, I would not need this for social use. I ruin my car, devalue it and it really is a con! So provide trust pool cars that employees can use and I am happy to cycle to work any day. It would cut down my journey time to work, unless school holidays have cut the traffic by 75%. Shocking how school traffic causes so much congestion.
My point is I am happy cycling or walking to work but need to have my car, which is a pain in the bum. I am looking for alternative work so I am not stuck in a car for 45 mins to get to work, which without rush hour would take 10 minutes maximum. Then I have to fight to park, sometimes I resort to parking on streets nearby, which means diving out of clinics with patients waiting in order to park your car every two hours. Makes for a fun life, especially as most patients are a bit upset when you say ‘I am so sorry you will have to go back to the waiting room because I have to move my car or I will get a ticket’. This is a waste of NHS time, a waste patient time and a waste of clinical time, but hey ho, do I care – I am getting paid to wander the streets every two hours to move my car!! The challenge is remembering where I left it!
Whilst. I agree with most of your point as I also work for NHS, you shouldn’t have to pay for business use. I have been in community for 14 years and never yet paid for it.
if you have to travel for your post to various locations on your employers business then you”need” business use… You Insurers could always repudiate any claim that arises.
If you only have “one” place of work, SDP is OK. To be safe I would check with your broker / insurer. One my policy Business use doesnt cost any more than SDP & commuting anyway
You need to get advice from your union or a solicitor, regarding your contract of employment. This is a common issue that I have personally had to resolve with two university employers by refusing use of my vehicle when lift-sharing or when my partner is using the car.
Middle managers will freak, claim that use was implicit in asking for a clean driving licence etc. etc. but then scurry off to HR and… “Oh look! It say nothing in the contract about maintaining and providing a vehicle for organisation use”.
My former employer ended up with a porter chauffeuring me and kit from campus to campus because they hadn’t organised pool car usage for ordinary staff. 😀
The irony is that if they hadn’t asked me and my lift-share to cover parking separately on each campus, I’d never have played hardball.
Like I said, make sure you have you back covered before telling managers where to go
Ilma… here in manchester the idiot local mayor, who was rejected in a vote but somehow still got a job, has proposed a£7 per month precept to the council tax to….. Pay for bus passed for 17 & 18 year olds… this is to educate them on how wonderful public transport can be and ensure they use it for the rest of their lives…. So even old age pensioners, sat at home, lonely and alone will be taxed for “free” bus passes for teenagers…. Of course suggesting the appropriate teenagers get up and find work to fund their bus passes doesnt appeal to the champagne socialist rabble in charge around here.
MG180Man that would not work, what about the people that live out of town in villages etc. the village I live in has a bus service one every 2 hours, so at what time do you leave for work to get there on time
Agree, We live in a city but work out of town, 20 miles away. When a shift finishes at 2am there are no public services at all.
I live 20 miles out of town (where I travel to for work) in a little rural hamlet where the only public transport available are school buses! Somehow I don’t think the school buses will give a fully grown adult a lift back home at midnight after finishing a shift. So it’s either my car or somebody else’s car (taxi or minicab) but either way it is still by car!
Where my mum and dad lived there was 2 buses a week on a Wednesday one in the morning and one in the afternoon
Ian – I suggest you read MG180Man’s post again as I think you have misunderstood. The point he is making is that if, for one day, we all left our cars at home and attempted to rely upon public transport it would prove just how inadequate that service is especially for people like you and I. You are lucky to have a bus service every 2 hours. We have one only 2 days per week.
They already see how woefully inadequate it is, look at the recent scandals with trains and the hike in fair prices…. The gov arent interested in the people who pay for their salaries, and keep them in the life of luxury they were bred into!
that is perfectly clear by the complete and utter debacle that is Brexit!
i wish there was a way to rid ourselves all off current politicians as all they are bothered about is their own agenda, not what their constituents who elected them into power and who pay their wages actually think and want!!
Steve, you are absolutely spot on. They are just legal thieves that forget they are there to serve us but screw us instead.
Totally agree, Mg180man. I’ve long wanted us to call the government’s bluff and do what they’re trying to make us do – everyone leave the car at home. The £millions lost from reduced production would prove the value of a mix of travel options.
yes it would show how inadequate it is, for me its a 20 min car journey or a 2 hour journey by 2 buses then a 1 1/2 mile walk to where I work so to get to work by 9am I would have to catch the 7am bus from home oh but then I would have to leave work by 4 pm to make sure I got the last bus home which is a 6pm.
I had to endure this while working in Nottingham. Nottingham City Council has been anti-motorist for many years. They had a wheeze back in the ’70s where all the traffic lights on roads going into the city were phased to be on red for 25 minutes out of every 30 between the hours of 8.00. and 9.30. weekday mornings. They are a bunch of Stalinists. Everyone who has to commute into Nottingham hates them; with good reason.
Same issue with Reading Borough Council. They also own the bus company that has a virtual monopoly in the area so there is a conflict of interest here between making a profit for the bus company and on the other hand representing the electorate.
They also put in traffic lights wherever they can to slow down the traffic flow thus generating more pollution and then having the cheek to say that pollution is too great and everyone should use buses!
Stalinists!
I worked in Nottm in early 1980s and had to pay £289 every 6 months for a parking permit when the average wage was only about £60-70 a week. I still have the receipts and the NCC biro they gave me once when I contested an overcharge.
Once drove through Nottingham city. Never again.
Didint some guy called Robin Hood do a bit of thieving around there? Maybe the council are imitating him, except they take from the poor and keep it for their own pet projects
Bet this didn’t apply to council parking
The employee should not be affected as it isn’t there premises and you go for a job with free parking when your looking at wages effectively it’s a drop in wage when people are already struggling.
I have just returned from a visit to Krakow in Poland. For two days of my visit it was deemed that the smog levels were high. So, in response the local government gave free travel to all for the full 24 hrs each day on the trams . I guess this was to encourage all to use the teams and leave cars at home.
Here all we do is tax everyone instead.
A few years ago Telford Council was considering this. They said it was to encourage people to find an alternative method of travel to reduce congestion. At the same time they were doubling the size of their own staff car park.
LOL
Won’t be able to afford to go to work soon, not had a cost of living pay rise for over 5 yrs so I don’t think my employer will be subsidising this, maybe better to become a burden on the state and claim unemployment benefits instead and perhaps spend more time driving my car around in the new free time that I would have.
My insurer tried to put my premium up on the basis I now had more time to drive. After I cancelled the insurance I pointed out that I was now unemployed and couldn’t afford the petrol to drive.
I discovered my insurance was cheaper if I was Retired rather than being Unemployed 😠
That’s daft. I am a community nurse and I definitely spend more time driving at work than when I am off.
It does make you feel that way as worker are being dragged down by more and more taxes. I am getting my Yellow Vest ordered .
This is simply a win win for the gov. use our transport or pay a fine .
People will now start parking on streets etc
Im 60…. Ill simply drop to the dole until I reach retirement date. Thats weekly trips to the dole office will be a very nice outing…..! Except of course I really really like to get out and work.
When all theee cities have excellent and affordable public transport provision in place to totally replace the motor car then fine.
Until then it’s just a transparent exercise in raising money with the pretence of “environmental improvements”
POLUTION ?
A parked vehicle is not creating any polution, unlike an electric parked vehicle being charged ????????????
I think the point is that in order to park your vehicle you need to have driven it to the parking space. It’s the driving that causes pollution not the parking! A parked electric vehicle being charged doesn’t give off poisonous hydrocarbons, which is what polltion is about.
It needs power to charge, power comes from power stations, which in turn, create pollution.
Power from the power stations can come from renewable energy sources so power from these sources will be pollution free.
Really, then how come I can see Cottom power station in the distance from my house, and I can still see emissions being pumped out 24/7
John Paul I see your school did a good job teaching you about the world around you. What you most of can see is the steam from the cooling towers not emissions as you believe.
Oh, and don’t forget the huge amount of pollution created by the battery making process for electric cars. Which, by the way, have a short life span, and are expensive.
Electric car batteries last a very long time, they are designed to and even manufacturers have noted they are lasting longer than they thought they would. When worn, you don’t throw out the whole battery, you test all the cells and only replace the bad ones. The bad cells then get recycled. Batteries are getting cheaper and more advanced all the time by the way.
Put it this way, what would you rather have in your town or city, streets full of internal combustion engines pumping out toxic fumes or near-silent electric motors pumping out nothing?
I would rather have I car I could hear before stepping into the road. I pay my road tax and fuel duty so I’ll happily drive my 3 litre mercedes diesel everywhere. I drive to work everyday. It’s less than a mile. As aforementioned, I pay all the taxes incurred on my car so I will use it. What’s the point if you don’t?
And public transport is abysmal and expensive.Because the public use it with a total disregard to manners. I dont want to hear someone talking loudly on their phone about what they had for tea the previous night. Or being squashed up against a stranger. B*****ks to that.
Talk to the guy next to me in work.. his Civic hybrid battery failed after 6 years.. the second hand replacement (£600) failed after 6 months, a new battery cost him £1600…
Of course Im going to buy into bills like that..”NOT”
Find me a power station in the UK thats powered by/run on renewable energy 100%.Just because a pwr stn uses renewable energy does not mean there are no polluting emisions at all.Take your green blinkers off.
No it takes power to make the turbines and blades and to dig the ore out to make the steel, it also takes power to dig the holes to plant the turbines, then if they are off shore you have to make specialized ships to plant them, don’t forget the cables they have to be made and at the end of the day they are only supposed to last 20 years and off we go again
Most of the pollution my vehicle produces in a city centre is caused by driving around trying to find a free parking space. I bet pollution would drop by half if parking charges were dropped.
This is a dictatorship levy. Local authorities are the cause by installing unneccessary traffic lights that have inappropriate sequences. Lets all live the governments dream and work from home no buses no car no trains no taxes raised from fuel or levies no life. As for slowing down of traffic everyone knows(except politicians) vehicles going slower have more pollutants coming from the exhust. Why not tax the air we breath.
Absolutely ridiculous, another way for the motorist to be ripped off , if public transport wasn’t such a shambles maybe motorists would embrace this , but they are just ploughing more taxes onto a broken system because they can and no one can do anything about it apart from the government and local council who rub their hands but can’t come up with anything constructive.
Apart from the perception of employers treating their employees badly by charging them for workplace parking places, it is very inefficient from a tax perspective. Employees pay out of income subject to tax and national insurance and the employer also has to pay national insurance on their pay and VAT on the parking charge. Surely employers should want to get the best staff and help them as much as possible (and they might also be more prepared to work late if they know their car is outside whatever time they finish!).
What if there is not public transport to get you to work or the transport that is available does not start until after your start time? Or it could take you hours to get to work and multiple changes which would happen for me?
United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust charge their employees at least £12.91 per month to park at work, and have done for a few years
Yeah, another unfriendly car city.
Most hospitals charge the visitors for parking and the staff have to pay as well, some hospitals give the staff a reduced rate but they are still being charged to work, it is absolutely disgusting for low paid nurses who are doing a fantastic job to have to pay for treating a sick person as that is what it comes down to.
Most hospitals charge their employees and in fact they are not charging a lot considering other hospitals charge staff far more. We do not have the car park capacity for staff as it has been changed to visitor parking and they can charge them more. So we park in the streets nearby which are two hour parking restrictions and move our cars every two hours. Once my phone alarm goes off, I leave what I am doing and repark my car elsewhere. I don’t mind, if the trust wishes to pay me to park my car on my hourly rate, that is absolutely fine. It can take half an hour to find a place to park in the summer holidays as I live near the sea side and the hospital is near the sea side, so yippeeee lucky me, gets to have a little walk in the sunshine every two hours.
Worcestershire Acute NHS charge staff for car parking but there’s no guarantee of a parking space- appalling. Normally you pay for something and it’s provided unless it happens to be staff parking in a hospital!
There is a way round the parking issue.
All the large companies have to do is notify the council that they will move their offices and thus their staff to out of town premises. There will be a huge dent in the Council’s coffers as no business rates will then apply.
I suspect councils are too stupid to think of this.
Most councils are stupid in most ways. Yet to talk to a councillor about our local roads who has shown one ounce of common sense, or a town planner, or highways employee. Recently I have never seen more stupid traffic signs or road lane closures, or alterations to roundabouts with traffic lights on, that completely change the way the traffic moves around it, absolutely stalling the traffic and grinding it to a halt resulting in long queues. They also change the traffic light times so that traffic on a roundabout near me is now causing huge long tails backs while the road that has a longer green light is empty. I guess the idea is to ensure people get brassed off with using their cars and just stay at home. Well when they have no social care workers, they will just have to think again!
The way the motorist is being hit , soon it will be cheaper to stay at home and claim social.
It already is my neighbour does it.
good luck living on £73.10 per week
Thats only one benefit william, get on universal credit… six benefits rolled into one. Pays council tax bills etc..
How do they define spaces as “available to employees”? I run a garage so we have loads of parking spaces, but they are for customers and cars being repaired. I ask my employees not to use them, but (a) how would this be policed and (b) what about the days they get their own car repaired while they are at work?
I live in Nottingham and strongly disagree with the workplace parking levy. I do agency work in schools, including schools in the city boundary. I have only paid to park once. On all other occasions I park on the street. So do most staff. I understand this is annoying for residents and it must be frustrating seeing a car park for for 15-20 cars with only 1 or 2 cars parked in there, because everyone else parks on the street to avoid the charge. It doesn’t solve the problem of pollution, because people are still driving.
In Sandy, Beds the residents have been running their keys down the sides of commuters cars in an effort to stop them parking in their streets opposite the train station.
If people don’t like others parking their vehicle legally on the public road that just so happens to be outside their house, that is their problem, not the commuters. If you have a car and no where of your own to park it at home then you have made a mistake somewhere along the line. Build a driveway or if you can’t, move to somewhere where you can or already has one, simple. Parking on the public road, even outside somebodies house, is not illegal, keying someones car however, is.
The other option is getting every resident on the street to petition the council to make the street a permit holders only parking area, where only residents and resident approved guests may park.
Paul, and then 12 months after initialising the scheme the council come back to the residents and demand payment for “administration” of the scheme…. then year on year the admin fee rises….
Then they are outdoors causing criminal damage and I hope they get fined/punished as they should to the fullest extent of the law.
Let’s hope when they go to hospital there is a walk out of staff then, because I have to park on the streets and have to move my car two hourly. I have had my car keyed. But when staff have to use their cars for work and home visits what choice do they have?? I now have a camera in my car and a very good car battery, a car sensor and I can see my car from my mobile, so I can record the events now. Not that the police will act but at least I have to choice to put the video on social media and shame the person.
I run a small/medium business and our premises has a large car park area. If this TAX (that what it is) was brought in by the local council the company would be facing additional costs of £35,000 per year – how are we supposed to find that amount of additional profit? We would have to increase turnover by about £140,000, no simple task. Do we pass the charge onto the staff, we probably would have to. My staff that life locally tend to cycle into work, everyone else commutes from quite a distance and local public transport is just not suitable. One of my guys comes in via two trains and a bus – he is lucky to get here by 10:00 am with the constant failings in the transport system.
The end result of this tax will be businesses losing staff and staff being penalised financially for going to work. In some cases the businesses will fail due to the increased costs, it would be interesting to see any analysis of how businesses reacted to the charges in Nottingham and how many jobs it cost.
Time to don the yellow vests!
Motorists have had good for so long they expect to be able to drive and park wherever they want when they want causing pollution congestion everywhere they must not realise times are going to change and motorist will have to be the last priority in driving parking or pay much more for doing so .You cannot ban people from using cars but you can make it harder for them to do it
I totally agree, let’s stop people using cars and shut down all the shops and businesses that aren’t on a bus route.
Why don’t the councils charge their staff for parking in council car parks, that would bring in extra revenue instead of making all these cuts . Nurses have had to pay extortionate fees for parking for many years
Even better, let’s all give up work and go on the dole, then all the holier than thou, do gooding environmentalists can go find some othe group of people to harass and bully. Even better, when one of these enviromonsters has an accident, let’s charge the ambulance to get to them, make it pay to park as they treat them, charge them a congestion charge because they’re diesel, then send the whole charge back to the injured enviro mental guy to pay. They wouldn’t be so keen on charging motorists then
Another scheme to target the motorist.
Public transport just isn’t available in many outlying districts, so driving is the only choice. Reading is probably the one of the greediest anti-motorist councils in the country. Every facet of road-use and parking charge is aggressively pursued here.
However, the suitability of parking facilities is blatantly ignored. The Broad Street Mall car parks have entry and exit lanes that are too narrow for modern vehicles and have not been upgraded since being built in the 70’s (when cars had much, much narrower wheelbases). The nett result is thousands of pounds worth of unavoidable damage to alloy wheels and tyres which the Council will not accept liability for, and then charge London prices for the ‘privilege’!!
Many workers living outside Reading, but working in the town, face an annual cost of at least £3000 for getting to work and parking. Perhaps the Council should focus more attention on traffic flow at peak times by providing School transport, as in other countries, and restricting LGV’s during peak times. The difference in school holiday times is staggering.
Road conditions in Reading are diabolical too, with drivers and bikers having to weave around potholes in carriageways which is pretty dangerous, or suffer damage to wheels and suspension.
WPL just adds to the pain already suffered by workers and businesses which should not be penalised for having decent parking facilities.
More evidence of brazen exploitation and greed pursued under the banner of the ‘Green Initiative’.
these idiots do not understand one thing: we, the residentsd are their employers.
now they will steal more of our hard earned money to give it to those who live on benefits!
Typical British stupidity and greed from Local Authorities. If you want screw companies and people let’s put a tax on bicycle spaces too. IF you want to reduce congestion then offer a rebate on business rates and council tax on those companies who offer remote (satellite office) or home working and on employees who take it up. That is a sensible way to cut down on congestion.
at the moment most areas are blighted by the parking of company vans. The companies responsible save money by longer having to provide parking facilities. If there are to be charges for parking at work it will just mean that more people will park in the streets adding to the massive parking problems in most areas.
What we should in fact have is a parking charge for all company vans which park on public roads when not being used. We have many inner london borough vehicles and national companies parked in our streets which means that we have nowehere to park.
Make the big companies repay some of the savings they made by not providing parking spaces or
alternatively give incentives for off road parking
But now they are also preventing you from parking on the streets. Here in Cambridge the council have put bollards out all along one side of a particular road that commuters use to be able to park on. The residents kicked up such a stink they also extended all the yellow lines. What few spaces left are now also full of white vans before most commuters get there.
It needs to be recognised that the only effective way to reduce both congestion and pollution is by a system of road charging so that it costs much more to use a road in busy times. I live near Nottingham and the money raised by WPL is put to improving public transport.
Nottingham City Transport as one of the most modern fleets in the UK and a popular tram system and could be considered an exemplar that should be copied by many other UK cities.
What about the disabled which can not use public transport
Exempt, in Nottingham, as are company car and motorbike spaces.
What about the disabled which can not use public transport
I couldn’t agree more with that!
Just because someone has a disability does not mean that they don’t work and therefore won’t need parking!
Yes, of course we need to reduce our reliance on the petrol engine but these people just don’t care how they do it. Most people cannot contemplate leaving their car at home until adequate and reliable public transport options are in place. Its arrogant and cruel to use the stick first and promise the carrot in the future.
Those who advocate the provision of “rewards”, “incentives” for, or “free use of” more environmentally modes of travel have very laudable motives, but what they are really saying is – use public funds which come from who ? Us the public. What goes round, comes round. A very virtuous circle, providing you’re not the ones doing the paying !
Maybe companies that are charged could pass to council’s by charging them mm ore for services o e bin emptying recycling and other services
Just give up work and go on the dole.
Alternatives to driving to work are already much cheaper (electric cars are only a small part of the solution). The whole “incentivise rather than penalise” argument is short-sighted in this context, and by penalising parking at work you effectively incentivise every alternative (including ride sharing and walking which would be difficult to otherwise incentivise) in a simple consistent manner. Long term it would also help in encouraging better ise of space rather than so much being wasted in car parks. – bias warning : I did give up my 25-40 drive for a sub 23 minute bike ride over a year ago and haven’t looked back since!
I do however agree with a number of comments suggesting that increased access and affordability of alternatives (such as buses supported by more bus lanes and a change of emphasis on town/city infrastructure towards walking and cycling over driving) should be a part of a joined up long term solution.
Lucky you, some of us are expected to use our car for home visits, to work in other hospital sites, to use our cars and our money insuring our cars for work purposes. Use a bike would be fab but not sure my equipment would fit in the side saddle bags!
This is absolutely stupid whilst I cycle to work most of the time if this was a yearly charge to the employee, people like me would be charged even though they rarely drive to work. This is not to reduce co2 levels but another revenue tax.
I would love to know whose idea this was as they probably don’t drive anyway
I cycle to work most of the time but occasionally need to drive. Am I expected to pay for something I don’t receive. Another silly idea that has little to do with Co2 levels but another tax on the motorist.
This is disgraceful, companies already pay exorbitant rates bills for their property & land which gives them the right to do what they want with parking spaces. Now the councils are pretending they care about the pollution that harms people, in fact, they do not care because if they did they would not allow motorists to travel anywhere, they are nothing but hypocrites just like the mayor of London.
What will happen is nobody will be able to afford to go to work soon which will cause unemployment everywhere. The councils should be channeling their time into what we pay them to do: education, planning, fire & public safety, social care, libraries, waste management, rubbish collection, recycling, housing, police, public transport, neighbourhood planning, litter, graffiti etc.
Another thing, when are we going to get decent roads after all the road fund licence money that has been collected?
All they do is moan that they have not got enough money to do anything because they have mismanaged all the funds in the past, also if they have not got enough money to give us decent roads, police force, fire brigade etc they should give a hefty refund to all people who pay rates.
Finally someone else who is switched on!
Rochdale (we have no money) council have just announced that they are spending £3 million on.. removing the road and parking from around the town hall…
Seems that have money for themselves but sod all for the mug tax payers
Avarice rules the world ……. !
Avarice rules the world …………!
Yet again it
s the government jumping on the band wagon to make more money for there back pockets. Its not really about the air-pollution levels.I believe the likes of USA, China and India needs sorting out first before us. They are the worlds worst for pumping out bad air pollution levels.
I know we all should do our bit but if one half of the world is contributing to this and not the other it
s just a waste of time.t be worth me coming to work and the company would possible loss most of it`s work force too.I work out in the country. The nearest town or village is a 15miles away with no public transport passing my work place.
So bringing WPL in would mean it wouldn't
Pity so much is concentrated in built-up town and city centre area. That gives an even journey in from the surrounding area but what has changed?
Years ago when I was a lad the streets were empty in London, Glasgow and I assume other places. Tens of thousands of people managed to get to work in shipyards, factories, shops etc by tram, bus and train. What happened?
Did we collectively become selfish with an “I’ve got a car I’ll drive come hell or high water and never mind the consequences’ attitude? Yes, it is very convenient to knock off work and jump in the car, but had we all continued to use public transport when it was there maybe it would still be there and run at times to suit the working population, shoppers, and more casual travellers.
I remember seeing special ‘Works’ services in the 1970s/80s.
The sight outside Ibrox Stadium after a major football match was a sight to see, buses queuing nose to tail to collect the homeward bound fans. So it’s our fault!
Putting it right and getting a decent public transport system that recognises working times, major worker flows with its peaks and the fact that people who go out in the evening need to get back home again. Its all very well local councillors saying get taxi home in the evening, are there enough taxis to say 5/10/20,000 people home at 22:00hrs after and evening football match. I doubt it.
What a load of cods wollop. Of course it’s just back door taxation.
The problems we are now faced with are due to decades of under/no investment in infrastructure and privatisation.
For starters scrap all bus lanes; they do not work, proof I live West Manchester and the £130m couple of miles on the A580 East Lancs Rd has done nothing but cause further congestion, hardly any buses on it and the park and ride holds very few cars (also empty half the time).
Build major park and ride and support them with an adequate public transport to final city centre destinations.
Stop dreaming that the electric car is the answer. They’ve been telling us for years that we will run out of electricity for household and commercial use before you start trying to charge cars (and we can’t seem to be able to build new power stations).
As so many sensible people are saying, stop punishing drivers and incentivise them. Scrap all tax or only very low tax on all small engined hybrids, after all the only sensible short to medium term answer is hybrid not electric, that will come in time but for now hybrid is the answer.
Driving an nearly new Euro 6 diesel paid for out my earnings, I won’t be changing quickly without a very good incentive. Bring more taxes in and the answer is simple, I won’t come into the city centre, plenty of other places to go for shopping, dining etc. etc. without this stupidity.
One of the reasons I choose to work where I do is because of a short commute and free parking. I will never work in the city again and won’t even shop there anymore.
As other people have said, all these idiots in charge keep doing is moving the problem somewhere else instead of dealing with it in a sensible manor.
I can sympathise with the idea if it would work, but for many of us there is no choice. I would be quite happy to use public transport if it was available in my area to get to where I want to go.
Concerning parking charges, the staff atour local NHS hospital have to pay to park there which I think is disgusting, it is bad enough having to pay as an outpatient particularly as it has just been doubled recently by extending teh minimum hos you have to pay for.
The WPL would not be necessary if we followed the examples of other large cities around the world. Just returned from Perth WA and Hong Kong. Both cities have reliable affordable and effective public transport networks.. The problem here in the UK is that public transport is unreliable, very expensive and only works on profitable routes. It’s time that our government brought it back under the umbrella of ‘public service’ and actually provide a service which works. THEN people would gladly leave their cars at home, reducing inner city pollution and leaving our cities flowing to get the goods and services in and out rather than sitting wasting time and money in endless traffic jams.
Yes it is just another tax on motorists.
I work from home officially but do need to go to my company offices (six around the country) and our customers (all around the country) on a regular basis. Does this mean that I would get taxed almost every time I go to work or will the cities merely increase the car park fees that are often extortionate anyway.
WPL IS just another tax on motorists. As for slowing down traffic – it does NOT reduce pollution. A street full of vehicles moving at 5mph or less means their engines are not operating at their most efficient and can increase the overall emissions .
Who gets the money from local authority car parking spaces for their own employees? It would be highly hypocritical if they weren’t charged.
I live in Nottingham and the Parking Levy has caused major problems for local people. The Levy has been passed on to employees. They than park their cars as close to work as possible mainly in residential areas to avoid this levy. Residents than find that they can no longer find a parking space outside of their own homes when in the past they have had no problems. To exasperate the situation further, some residential areas that have complained to the council have had their street parking areas made into “resident permit only areas” but all this has done is move the problem to other streets. l have a house in one of these areas and have had street parking for the past 20 yrs, now the nearest l can get to my house to drop of bags of groceries etc is over 300 metres away and as l am 71 with walking difficulties this has caused me problems but do the council care….NO
For me to get to work it’d cost more in monetary terms and time to get public transport but I did buy a motorbike for the sole purpose of commuting as a car would have been uneconomical given the congestion we face. We all have bespoke needs; not everyone is able buy a motorbike and in those cases it might be better/cheaper/less frustrating to take public transport.
Horses for courses as they say, but I think everyone would agree that the government are not thinking about these different scenarios and are effectively trying to hammer in a picture nail with a sledgehammer.
These people in their ivory towers, they mean well but have absolutely no idea what effect their plans have. If I was to do my daily 25 mile commute by public transport it would take 3 busses, two trains and three hours each way and heaven knows how much it would cost. Most of those vehicles would be half empty, thus pollution per head is probably greater than driving a car. And then these people seek to punish me for not using public transport, as if using it would not be punishment?
I hear you say, get a job nearer to home, some hope, my work travel goes thus over the years – 1 mile, 3 miles, 7 miles, 90 miles, 45 miles and now 25 miles each way. If it wasn’t for our politicians or the bankers or the Americans et al, I might still be on the 3 mile commute. Didn’t Norman Tebbit suggest I should get on my metaphorical bike to find a job? I had to.
Where I live there is a business park just around the corner, they charge for parking, and the result – the council refuse collectors cannot get down the road because of all the parked cars who’s owners are avoiding the charge.
Hello Mr Politician, bigger picture out here!