Nottingham City Council have announced that their Workplace Parking Levy comes into force on Sunday 1st April, i.e. a charge to businesses with 11 parking spaces or more where they will have to pay £288 a year for each space, rising to £380 by 2015.
:eeek:
Employers have licensed 45,500 spaces at more than 3,000 premises around the city, of these, the council said 28,000 will be fully chargeable with the remainder qualifying for a discount.
Nottingham City Council believe that their Levy will generate an average of £14m a year for each of the 23 years of the scheme.
As you would expect, many business are opposed to the scheme with one describing, "It is like having a 20% hike in business rates"
Already Boots have announced that announced that some of their Levy will be passed onto to staff, given that of their 4,500 car park spaces cirac 3,000 fall within the City boundary and is therefore chargeable - though Boots have said it was considering moving its car park to avoid the charge.
Separately, in a consultative ballot, hundreds of Unite and GMB members at Imperial Tobacco in Nottingham voted by 75.6% in favour to progress to a formal ballot for industrial action over the city council's Workplace Parking Levy after the mega-rich multinational tobacco company advised it would be refusing to pay this parking levy and is instead looking at ways to pass it on to its workers.
In 'separate' news, a new cheaper rate was recently introduced at one of Nottingham's largest car parks to encourage more workers to use it, with Nottingham City Council now charging to park all day at the Broadmarsh multi-storey car park as only circa 600 of the 1263 spaces are usually used each day (though as they previously charged £15, you can perhaps understand why many people chose not to pay the £75 per week it would cost them to park there).
Sadly it seems that Nottingham is not alone with Bristol, York, Leeds& Bournemouth being amongst many Councils looking to introduce levies in an effort to raise funds.
and when some businesses relocate or leave the country putting more people out of work it will be one of the reasons used.
I would like to see one of these larger companies challenge the right of Councils to enforce a charge on landowners for what they do with thier own land having been previously granted planning permission to use it as a car park, and impose this stealth tax without government legislation allowing them to do it (I am assuming that this has not been approved by parliament).
I would like to know what this revenue will be used for and see payments taken from an area of council funding to pay the levy on thier own car parks at Council owned buildings.
I would further like to hear the justification for the levy, what is it costing the council for Boots and the other busineses to have a car park and if they intend to provide adequate alternative parking near premises that they have given planning permission to should those businesses decide to close thier car parks.
It is just another stealth tax, if they keep going there will be no money left in the purse to pay all the taxes out there. (I am retired this tax will not apply to me but I do have an opinion in life)
I believe we are witnessing the beginning of the end of our unhealthy obsession with private motor cars,
i will wait for the answer from the said member on how we would get about in the two examples given.
i suppose we could always ask for a lift on the back of his motorcycle, as the said member at leest has other forms of transport and obviously wont be hanging around in the rain for a once in an hour bus to come along. :twisted:
It wont happen overnight.
The answers are decent public transport and the location of home work and facilities. Just as they were 50 yrs ago before cars got the upper hand.
Foxy just cos change might inconvenience you or you find it hard to imagine doesnt mean it isnt gonna happen or that the signs arent already there.
Blue, not quite. In the short term the advantages of motorcycles as personal transport will lead to an increase in popularity particularly for smaller engined machines. In fact thats already happening too.
The government dont make things happen. We do. As cars become more expensive and problematic we the consumer will create a market for alternatives. Likewise employers and services will adapt to the changing needs of their customers and employees. That's how I think it will go.
Welcome back flower, I have missed you and I couldn't have put it better myself, in fact I didn't.
Pleas stop making things up.
)
