Nottingham’s parking tax

Nottingham council’s plan to impose a Workplace Parking Levy (WPL), effectively charging businesses an annual fee for each parking space on their premises, could face legal action. The proposed WPL, commencing in 2010, seeks to tax businesses with 10 or more car parking spaces at £185 per bay per year.The idea has already met with stiff opposition from some of Nottingham’s larger employers; the Boots chemists’ group, for example, would face an annual bill beyond £800,000.It’s feared that firms will simply pass their costs onto employees, a move that could be especially detrimental to lower-income earners who do not have other transport alternatives.Derbyshire and Nottingham Chamber of Commerce has labelled the tax as “worse than congestion charging” and threatened legal action in a bid to overturn the proposal."I'm sure businesses are going to take this matter extremely seriously and will be wanting to look at every aspect of it to see if it can be overturned,” said George Cowcher of Nottingham's chamber of commerce. “This is very bad news for the town. Why Nottingham is almost transfixed by imposing this particular levy is beyond belief."The council has said that the aim of the WPL is to target commuters, not shoppers or pensioners; it claims that it will raise the £5.6m needed in 2010 to improve the transport network in Nottingham.