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Controversial plans to introduce a tax on workplace car parking have been ditched by Bristol City Council.
The move would have raised up to £27m towards public transport in the city but Tim Kent, the councillor responsible for transport, said fears that Bristol would be viewed as unfriendly to business, as well as issues over administering the scheme, were behind the decision.
He said the council would look at ways of using business rates to raise funds, now available to the city under the Government’s City Deal initiative.
Cllr Kent, pictured, told the BBC: “One of the key things we’ve said it that it shouldn’t just be the residents and citizens that contribute, it should be
business as well.
“We never firmly said we’d go down that route [of a working parking levy] but we’ve always been clear that it was our favoured option at the time. Things have changed and another option has presented itself.”
The planned £1 per day charge on each car using workplace car parks was attacked by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), which called for a boycott of the consultation into the plans earlier this year.
FSB Bristol chair Guy Kingston said the council was “victimising” small businesses in the city and the plans involved “leeching” from firms.
“Why should businesses which bring wealth and prosperity into Bristol have to pay for these schemes when they do not even have universal approval?” he said in March.
The decision though will disappoint campaigners for better public transport in the city. In a forthcoming issue of the Bristol Civic Society magazine, Dr Angela Raffle – a consultant in public health in Bristol – will say businesses need to “wise up” to the fact that opposing workplace parking levies simply ensures that rush-hour traffic remains at its present, chronic levels, as workers have no incentive to use alternative options.
