Car Parking Madness

An interesting article in the national press this week that grabbed my attention was the working place parking charges being introduced by Nottingham City Council. My interest in the  story is two fold, firstly because I worked in the city and secondly because I was engaged in transport research in at the University of Leeds many years ago.

Having worked there I know what some of the problems that the city faces, just from the queues of traffic I have sat in while listening to the traffic reports on local radio. I have also lived in other cities with far worse traffic problems. On the whole I found that even in the peek you could predict travel times and the queues in general were manageable and normally flowing. Like all cities Nottingham has it pinch points where major roads meet but outside of these the traffic moves freely. In my opinion as a driver it actually not too bad considering the size of the city and it seems to have an excellent public transport system in place.

So I guess it raises the question, what is Nottingham City Councils motivation for bring in the scheme? According to reports in the press, the idea is to help fund major transport improvements in the area by generating extra income for the city council. Councillor Jane Urquhart, the head of transport and planning on Nottingham City Council, said: "The WPL provides a vital funding stream. Without it we wouldn't be having two more tram lines, or indeed the railway station redevelopment, both of which are now under construction.".

Meanwhile the AA has dubbed the scheme "a tax on work" which would damage local businesses and employees. In effect the £8 million generated in the first year is being taken from businesses in a form of tax and being passed to the council. That is set to rise to year on year until at least 2015, taking even more money out of the local economy. Basically for each work place parking space the city council wants £288 this year, £334 next year, rising to £364 by 2015. This basically means tax, or levy as the council calls it, will jump 15% next year and be 32% higher within three years.  

I must say I agree with Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, who said: "The council blames commuters for Nottingham's congestion, but people travelling in to the city to work make it the prosperous place it is." The fact is by taking money out of the local economy when the country is in the mess it is in won't help the city, the businesses in the city or the people that are living and working there. What is worse is it looks like the City Council has committed itself to developing two more tram lines and redeveloping the railway station, all because knew it would impose this tax and borrowed my on the back of it. 

My personal view is that this the wrong time to be adding extra taxes to businesses, especially small ones, when they can ill afford to pay them. If anything it will drive new business away from the city to other cities were such measures don't exist and close some existing ones. Further more it will create a new parking problem, as over coming years businesses will start shedding car parking and forcing people to park where they can. In some cases this will impact on residential areas and just cause a whole new set of parking issues for the city. Basically at this time it is the wrong thing to do and it looks like no real thought has been given to the introduction of the working car park place tax and the effects it will have on the city.