Workers face £180-a-year tax for driving to work under plans to charge businesses for parking spaces

 

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 1:46 PM on 30th September 2008

 

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Workers could be hit with a £180 a year 'pay-as-you-park' tax for the privilege of driving to work under controversial plans designed to reduce congestion.

Council chiefs want to impose the so-called 'work-place parking levy' within two years to raise millions of pounds for public transport improvements.

Critics say the scheme is yet another stealth tax. But Nottingham City Council says it will boost the city's economy by helping to pay for new tram routes, the refurbishment of its train station and new bus routes.

 

A pay-as-you-park scheme to reduce congestion could see workers paying £180 a year just for driving to work

 

Around 500 companies with 10 or more workplace parking spaces would be liable for the charge.

The work-place parking tax would be imposed initially on firms. But companies say they will have to pass it on to employees - or move location.

Business leaders have also warned the tax could be introduced in other cities if the proposals get the go-ahead from the Government in the next few weeks.

 

George Cowcher, chief executive of the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce, said earlier: 'It's clear that a precedent might be set and if it is, businesses across the country will have to dig deep in their pockets to pay the levy.'

The city council wants to start the charge - equivalent to 75p a day - in 2010 and estimates it would raise £5.6 million in the first year alone.

The tax would rise to £350 a year by 2014, before continuing to increase in line with inflation.

Councillor Jane Urquhart, who is in charge of transport at the authority, said: 'If we don't provide the finance that the work-place parking levy will generate, employers will not have the incentive to minimise their parking provision and encourage more sustainable commuter travel by their staff.'

 

Outgoing Transport Secretary Miss Kelly appeared in March to have gone cold on plans for a controversial UK wide pay-as-you drive congestion-charging scheme - with drivers paying up to £1.50 a mile at peak times - dismissing it as a 'sterile debate'.

But the plan sprang back to life later that month when Chancellor Alistair Darling announced Government funding for national pilot schemes to test the technology.

More than 1.8million motorists signed a petition opposing the Government's controversial 'pay as you drive' road-pricing scheme on the Downing Street website.

Motorists also face road-tolls by the back-door under controversial plans to create pay-as-you-drive car-share lanes.

Drivers will be able to buy their way out of gridlock by paying a fee to use up to 500 miles of specially reserved car-share lanes, policed by a new generation of high-tech digital cameras.

Does anyone care about Nottingham? :rolleyes:

Does anyone care about Nottingham? :rolleyes:

 

Maybe not - but that might be just the start...................... coming to a city near you soon!!:stunned:

we do if Manchester thinks its a great idea. stick that on top of the congestion charge, and I'm packing in my job and going to the dole office

Is the sound of nails being hit into the coffin of business within Nottingham city limits?

Next they are going to tax your tax.

They already do that with Value Added Tax :lol:

 

Next Lord Brown will increase that rate from 17.5% to 18%

I will never pay for parking, the congestion charge or road tax.

I will never pay for parking, the congestion charge or road tax.

 

Perhaps - but they'll get you with the new breathing tax.:smug:

I dread to think of the amount of tickets I owed on my last car, luckily not been a UK one it meant they couldn't do a lot about it:laugh3:

I dread to think of the amount of tickets I owed on my last car, luckily not been a UK one it meant they couldn't do a lot about it:laugh3:

 

Wait til the new system comes in, where ticket debt will be collected by debt collectors for foreign registered cars

What's that you say Mr Sherlock the spammer, keep an eye on your posts so I can delete them?

Wait til the new system comes in, where ticket debt will be collected by debt collectors for foreign registered cars

 

How will they know where to look for them though?, I know the EU are going to harmonize thier traffic systems so if it was an EU registered car they would be able to find the owner but what about if it was outside the EU?, personally I liked the US embassy approach to paying the congestion charge got that slimy little tosser Livingstone hopping up and down.

slimy little tosser Livingstone

That's a bit harsh! He's not that small :confused:

That's a bit harsh! He's not that small :confused:

 

:rolleyes:

How will they know where to look for them though?, I know the EU are going to harmonize thier traffic systems so if it was an EU registered car they would be able to find the owner but what about if it was outside the EU?, personally I liked the US embassy approach to paying the congestion charge got that slimy little tosser Livingstone hopping up and down.

 

The easiest way would be to take the same approach as to non-payment of car tax. If you're a repeat offender, the car will go on a database, the police will see your car, they'll seize it and they'll crush it. Don't need to know where you live then, just need to see it parked somewhere or you driving it along the street.

You car can be parked legally and still taken away, if it's flagged up on the database as being a repeat non-payer. It gets horrible when you find out your car has been cloned.

It really is pathetic the amount of monitoring,snooping and rubbish they use on motorists, Is it possible to renounce your citizenship when you leave the country?.

Motorists are soft targets for this private transport hating governement :(

 

As long as they live in cities, with staff cars, they don't care about the poor sods out in the country who need cars.

The sad thing is it looks like Brown has the slightest chance of being elected now he's the saviour of the banks etc, I hope everyone sees through it, still bound not to be long until his next faux pas.

So are you guys taxed heavily in other areas?

Every area, mainly because the current government we have are completly wasteful with money and stupid to boot, I'm going to be glad to get over to the US.

Every area, mainly because the current government we have are completly wasteful with money and stupid to boot, I'm going to be glad to get over to the US.

 

Are you emigrating??:confused:

Kind of I guess, I was born there.

Kind of I guess, I was born there.

 

So you have dual citizenship??