Bedford Driving Lessons

Motorists who drive to work face having to pay a £250 “parking tax” under a scheme to be announced by ministers on Friday. The country’s first “workplace parking levy” will come into force in Nottingham in 2012 and is likely to be adopted by other councils. Under the scheme, any firm with 11 or more staff parking spaces will be charged £250 a year for each. That cost could rise to £350 within two years. Employers would be free to pass the cost on to their staff. An estimated 40,000 commuters in Nottingham drive to work and some businesses have threatened to leave the area if the scheme is introduced. Business associations oppose the extra cost, which has been put at more than £3 billion if it were rolled out nationwide. About 10 million people in Britain drive to work every day. Councils in Milton Keynes, Exeter, Cambridge and Oxford have expressed interest in the scheme. The Core Cities Group, which represents Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield, has also expressed interest, identifying the levy’s “congestion-busting” potential. More