The AA has branded plans to force motorists to pay up to £1000 a year to park at work as a “poll tax on wheels”.
The ‘workplace parking levy’, already in force in Nottingham and reportedly being considered by at least 10 councils, is part of the Government’s plan to reduce congestion and local pollution while raising finances to improve public transport.
AA president Edmund King claims that the charges, set to affect businesses with more than 10 parking spaces, would almost certainly be passed on to workers.
Electric cars should get free or discounted parking in London, says report
Edinburgh and Glasgow councils have confirmed they plan to go ahead with the charges, while the plan is under consultation in Oxford, Bristol, Cambridge, Reading and a number of London boroughs. Hounslow Council in West London has proposed a charge of between £500 and £1000 a year per parking space owned or leased by a company.
Nottingham city council has claimed that, since the charges were introduced, it has become the only large city in England to see traffic reductions on A-roads during the morning rush-hour. However, it’s been criticised as a charge that will harm the poorest and make commutes even more difficult for a significant portion of the public.
AA president Edmund King said: “The AA accepts that cities are under pressure to cut congestion and pollution. But this ‘poll tax on wheels’ discriminates against employees who are older and less mobile, pregnant women, the low paid and parents who combined a trip to work with school runs."
The scheme is being considered at an individual council level, and is not something forced down to them via the Department for Transport. It is reported that no proposals have been submitted since the Nottingham plan, introduced in 2012.
Join the debate
xxxx
Like other charges
It just makes it easier for the richest to get around by keeping the poorest off the roads. Case in point London congestion charge!
typos1 - Just can’t respect opinion
CarolineVega
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CarolineVega
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CarolineVega
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Peter Cavellini
Only a grand?!
My Wife’s Carpark would cost her a fiver a Day....?, that’s a Hundred a Month!
Peter Cavellini.
scrap
The AA need to make an
The AA need to make an effective contribution to this debate.
Calling it ‘a poll tax on wheels’ is hysterical and likely to be ignored.
Tatraman
Double the traffic
Aberdeen council tried to do this by limiting parking spaces for new office blocks.
Result: wife drops me at work, goes home, picks me up in the evening, hence doubling the number of car journeys and congestion.
gavsmit
Despicable
So the incompetent councils that are unable to manage their budgets properly or provide value to their communities, as they put political correctness above service, once again find a way to use the environment as an excuse to tax the easy target of law-abiding / working tax-payers of this country.
Many of those victimised commuters can't use unsafe / expensive / unreliable public transport as an alternative either, and are working at jobs they hate just to earn enough money to get by and pay the bills, like their extortionate council tax to pay the wages of the incompetent councils putting schemes like this forward.
Also, how does this congestion-busting "work parking bay tax" impact drug dealers and other criminals who are also clogging up the roads of our cities?! Like the thousands of criminals evading prosecution from speeding cameras by driving around with false number plates, they are immune as usual.
A revolution in this country is long overdue.
Everyone has a right to an opinion - don't confuse that with insulting your mother :-)
FM8
gavsmit wrote:
A post from someone completely clueless about Council budgets.
gagaga
Trams
Which Nottingham has, but the other places mentioned don't.
Seems these councils are only reading part of the press release.
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