Monday 24th September 2007

Workplace parking tax?

Could it happen? Lets hope not.

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As if the drive into work wasn’t bad enough, one council is planning to tax parking spaces.

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

It’s 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 but 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.

 

 

[incubus]

The situation is getting desperate. I never thought I'd say this, but oh how I wish we were French. We could then blockade some towns, burn some sheep, guillotine the idiots and have ourselves a revolution.

[Bizzle]

incubus said:

The situation is getting desperate. I never thought I'd say this, but oh how I wish we were French. We could then blockade some towns, burn some sheep, guillotine the idiots and have ourselves a revolution.

Hear Hear.

[ewenm]

article said:

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

Encourage? ENCOURAGE? "Punish" more like. Provide a decent level of public transport and people will use it willingly - it's called INVESTMENT.

[Swoxy]

This country does not want people to work.

[UpTheIron]

Completely unworkable, but I have long said:

1) Private transport is already heavily taxed. To buy a car & run it you pay Income Tax, VAT, fuel tax, etc etc. Taxing doesn't work, so an alternative is obviously required to get people out of cars and onto public transport.

2) Improve public transport. Make it cheaper and TAX FREE. If I could buy a season ticket and claim it against my income tax then it might just sway me.

[Marki]

ewenm said:

article said:

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

Encourage? ENCOURAGE? "Punish" more like.

The UK is ed

[Plotloss]

Marki said:

The UK is ed

When we have American comics coming over here and saying

'I see a country with a whole lot of history and not a lot of future'

I tend to agree.

[Vodka Margarine]

Oh.My.ing.God.

It's a 15 minute drive down the motorway to my work or a 2 hour trip on the bus (because of changing buses etc)

Let me guess it won't apply to the Prius

Edited by Vodka Margarine on Monday 24th September 12:18

[RLK500]

The only way to combat is for everyone, for a week to do just what they want. No one uses their car, we all pile onto public transport. Trust me, after a week of you arriving late at work (in which case your employer will probably offer to pay for you parking tax...), utter chaos on every platform throughout the land, no revenue from overpriced parking schemes, the morons running this country would realise that their nirvana of no car use is just the fantasy of an idiot.........

[Bing o]

UpTheIron said:

Completely unworkable

Why?

They tax the employer.

The employer taxes you (most likely).

A lot less hassle and cost than going the Congestion Charging route like London.

[Plotloss]

Its nothing new, this idea was floated and quickly dismissed about 10 years ago.

However, we didnt have the Green Religion back then.

[Conian]

Right boocks to this, I'm going on the dole.

Bloke over the road from me drinks smokes and had a new car bought for him. And how come everyone on the dole seems to have Sky TV?

Keep up the hard work fella's, pay for my laziness!
Ooo I think my back hurts... ow I cant lift heavy objects or use a pen. Poor me.

[ridds]

Vodka Margarine said:

Oh.My.ing.God.

It's a 15 minute drive down the motorway to my work or a 2 hour trip on the bus (because of changing buses etc)

Edited by Vodka Margarine on Monday 24th September 12:12

Same here, 15 mins in a car or an hour on foot and train due to the fact that they won't let me take anything other than a crappy folding bike on the trains down this way now.

Rubbish!!

[fatboy b]

ridds said:

Vodka Margarine said:

Oh.My.ing.God.

It's a 15 minute drive down the motorway to my work or a 2 hour trip on the bus (because of changing buses etc)

Edited by Vodka Margarine on Monday 24th September 12:12

Same here, 15 mins in a car or an hour on foot and train due to the fact that they won't let me take anything other than a crappy folding bike on the trains down this way now.

Rubbish!!

Bus to local town, train from town to town where I work, bus from train station to somewhere near work. About 2 hours, or 35 mins by car. Then I'd have to be back at my local town by 5.50 pm to catch the last bus home!

[andye30m3]

Surely we need some public transport first. We had a guy come for a interview were i work, lived less than 30 miles away but didn't drive. Think it took him 3 or 4 hours by public transport.

Simply another tax on people who have no choice.

[ewenm]

It's all tied up with the privatisation of "public" transport. The government/local councils don't have the control or ability to reduce fares or get train companies to carry bikes - not much profit in a bike.

Public transport should be a public SERVICE, not a profit-making business. Losses can be budgeted against some PC environmental scale (we've saved this much CO2, but it cost £X).

As others have said, IF we did all get out of our cars the treasury would be FUBAR'd and the public transport would be overloaded.

[stevieb]

Bing o said:

UpTheIron said:

Completely unworkable

Why?

They tax the employer.

The employer taxes you (most likely).

A lot less hassle and cost than going the Congestion Charging route like London.

It is completely unworkable as the employeers will most likely have to pay the employee more money to work there and ofset the charge for parking.

Say you employ 100 people in a office 85% drive so 85 * 350 PA = £29750

The companies options could be relocate to a neighbouring town/county so not to pay this £350 tax. or they can reduce there headcount by 1 person to cover te cost of paying this tax.

It seems that this may be the start look at the congestion charging, £5 per day at the start and now i cant remember what a band G car cost per day but there is nothing to stop them from charging a £2000 tax for a gass guzzler, and £350 for a normal car. But if you can afford a gas guzzler you can afford a hybrid to get the lowest tax. But normal working families this is not an option, they need to work so to put the basics on the table. If it then costs them xx more per year to work then looks like unemployment claims will be goib up soon!

Edited by stevieb on Monday 24th September 12:32

[MK4 Slowride]

How long before driving a car will be for the very wealthy only?

[bga]

Nottingham have been trying to do this for years to screw over Boots.

[Jack_and_MLE]

Do they want us to work?

There is no public transport which could be of some use for my commute

Jack