Parking mad! Sturgeon is deluged w ith protests over workplace tax

MEMBERS of the public have bombarded Nicola Sturgeon with complaints about her plans to impose a tax on staff parking spaces.

The First Minister has received dozens of letters and emails in recent months as her Government forced through its decision to allow a levy.

The decision – which was introduced as a result of a Budget deal between the Greens and the SNP – grants councils a new power to introduce the charge.

It means hard-pressed companies face the threat of paying the charge – likely to be around £415 per parking space per year. Employees also face being hit hard, since many firms are expected to pass the charge on to their staff.

Details of the letters and emails to Miss Sturgeon were published by the Scottish Government in response to a freedom of information request.

At the time of the Budget deal earlier this year, a member of the public emailed her MSP account to criticise her for ‘caving into the Greens and starting to tax people for parking at work’.

The email branded the decision ‘utterly disgraceful’, and added: ‘How can I have a comfortable retirement when you are removing the means for me to save for it?’

Another email, from a man who identified himself as an SNP voter, said he would need to add an hour to his commute for a job that often involves early starts or late finishes. He said: ‘Whilst I appreciate it was the Green Party who insisted on this it was the SNP who enabled this legislation to pass and it is the SNP that I and others will hold responsible at the polls.

‘The SNP must not try to merely pass the blame to the council. The tax must be abandoned. This tax will disproportionately affect low earners like me.’

Another email from the mother of a teacher said her daughter will need to park in a street some distance from the school and carry a large box of books and jotters.

She said: ‘Do you really think this proposed tax will encourage teachers to remain in the profession?

‘Have you seriously thought through the implications of imposing this tax or was it simply a means of getting your budget through?’

In an email sent in October, as the legislation passed its final stage at Holyrood, an SNP voter demanded an explanation of the logic behind the tax, and warned the First Minister she could lose ‘a whole family of voters’. The person added: ‘I find this new tax disgusting and nothing more than a direct persecution of motorists.’

A Transport Scotland spokesman said: ‘The Workplace Parking Levy will be a discretionary power that councils can choose to use – it is not mandatory. The levy will also support the delivery of better transport services, with any proceeds invested back directly into the delivery of the transport strategy.’