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Workplace parking levy for Exeter?

  • by JW

Exeter’s draft Air Quality Action Plan has considered introducing a new levy:

Workplace Parking Levy Employers within a defined area will pay a levy or charge for every business parking space they have. This will discourage use of private cars and generate income that will be used to deliver other aspects of the plan. Exeter City Council will lead by example by providing electric pool cars. The levy will be subject to a separate consultation to agree the area included and the fee scale.

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But this was rejected last November:

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In Scotland, they’re discussing introducing this, but more as a way of bringing in more cash for councils:

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Meanwhile, in Nottingham, it’s going quite well:

Nottingham City Council has generated more than £53 million from the workplace parking levy that came into force in 2012. The authority has used the tax on businesses parking spaces to invest in its tram network, link buses and revamp the railway station. Its example has prompted other cities – including Oxford, Cambridge, Reading and Glasgow and now Leicester – to follow suit in considering the idea.

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Although not everyone’s happy:

As budgets are squeezed, many councils are looking at other ways of raising revenue for transport schemes. This week I went up to Nottingham to see their Workplace Parking Levy (WPL) which has been running since 2012 and it means companies have to pay for car parking spaces.

At the moment they pay £417 per space per year to the council if they have 11 or more. Eight out of 10 companies pass that onto employees.

In Nottingham the council has used it to pay for a new tram, refurbish a station and introduce cycling schemes. The council says congestion has not got any worse and air quality has improved plus it makes drivers consider other modes of transport. In Nottingham, bus and tram use per head is the highest in the country outside London.

Some of the businesses I spoke to though were not happy at having to pay and said they were not getting any benefit from it.

Workplace parking tax considered by councils