Councils urged to be ‘brave’ on workplace charges for parking

Strong political leadership will be key if Scottish councils choose to introduce a workplace parking levy, MSPs have been told.

As part of its budget agreement with the Greens earlier this year, the Scottish Government pledged to allow local authorities to introduce such a levy, if they want to, as part of measures to reduce congestion and tackle air pollution.

It follows a similar scheme introduced by Nottingham City Council (NCC) in 2012.

At Holyrood’s Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee, the head of transport strategy at Nottingham City Council, Chris Carter, said it would be possible for local authorities, particularly those with a minority, to pass such a measure if there is a “clear vision” of what can be achieved by it.

“I think you need strong political leadership,” Mr Carter said.

“Exactly what form that takes will be different in different areas but I think strong political leadership is absolutely essential.

“As long as there’s agreement around a vision then it would work. “But I think leadership is the key.” Mr Carter also suggested reaction from the public had been mixed.

He said: “You had different reactions from different people.

“City residents, who are predominantly those people who get impacted by traffic, congestion, pollution and all the other adverse impacts of traffic generally support it because they can see the benefits in the investment and they can see that is beneficial to them.

“People who are likely to drive into Nottingham from further afield are going to say that they’ve been negatively impacted.

“So it impacts different people in different ways.”

The professor of transport policy at Loughborough University, Stephen Ison, said: “These are very difficult, very thorny measures. You have to be very brave, you have to have a vision because it’s not easy.

“You are actually implementing a disincentive, you’re introducing a charge, some would call it a tax. I think Nottingham were very brave.”

Concerns have been raised by opposition MSPs that the levy could have an adverse impact on lower paid workers.