15/12/2008 - Consultation on parking charges
A consultation on allowing councils to charge businesses for parking places they provide to staff has been launched, junior transport minister Paul Clark has announced.
The 12-week consultation on regulations to govern so-called "workplace parking levy" schemes will report in March next year.
The powers for councils to make businesses pay for providing parking places were included in the Transport Act 2000 and are intended to encourage car-sharing and the use of public transport.
No schemes can be brought in until the details are finalised, although Nottingham City Council has announced plans to introduce a workplace levy scheme from April 2010. Mr Clark said the consultation "should not be interpreted as implying that a decision on the Nottingham scheme has been taken".
In a written ministerial statement, he added: "Nottingham City Council has designed a workplace parking levy scheme and made and published a scheme order. The order cannot come into force until confirmed by the Secretary of State for Transport and the Secretary of State cannot consider the order in the absence of an appropriate regulatory framework."
The move was condemned by the director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce as a "stealth tax on business". David Frost added: "The scheme is purely a means to generate more funds for councils at the expense of local companies and their ability to compete."
Copyright © Press Association 2008
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