Commuters face a £350 tax on workplace parking spaces in an attempt to encourage them out of their cars and on to public transport.

The tax is being planned as an alternative to congestion charging because it is thought to be much cheaper and easier to collect. Nottingham City Council is the first local authority planning to introduce the tax. Eight other councils, including Devon County Council, are understood to be considering similar schemes.

Under the Nottingham initiative, employers with more than ten parking spaces will have to pay the tax and most are expected to pass the cost on to staff.

The scheme is widely thought to be more politically acceptable. Unlike the Central London congestion charge, shoppers and other drivers who are not travelling to work will not have to pay.

The Government gave local authorities the power to introduce the tax under the Transport Act 2000 but none has yet done so because it was believed that congestion charging was the best way to control rising traffic levels. However, the 1.8 million-signature petition against congestion charging on the Downing Street website this year has prompted many authorities to reconsider.

Nottingham is also opting for the tax, known as the workplace parking levy (WPL), because the cost of collecting it would only amount to 10 per cent of total revenues. By comparison, more than 40 per cent of the revenue from the London congestion charge scheme is spent on running costs.

Nottingham council believes that the WPL would be less intrusive than congestion charging because the council would not need to know drivers’ details or movements. It is planning to spend most of the estimated £12 million annual revenue on funding two more tram lines to complement the highly successful tram line that opened in the city in 2004.

The council is in the final stages of a consultation and is holding a five-day public examination of the scheme from October 1. If approved, the WPL would be introduced in 2010 at a rate of £185 per parking space. It would rise steeply each year until it reached £350 in 2014. After that, increases would be pegged to inflation. The council expects employers to remove 10 per cent of their parking spaces, resulting in 4,000 fewer people commuting by car each day.

The WPL would be enforced by spot checks on workplace premises. Employers found to be in breach of the rules would be fined half the annual cost for each space not declared.

However, the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce is fiercely opposed to the WPL on the grounds that it might cause some employers to move out of the city. Similar claims were made by business groups before the introduction of the Central London congestion charge, which proved to be unfounded.

Boots, one of Nottingham’s biggest employers, which has 3,000 staff parking spaces, is opposed to the WPL but says that it is unlikely to move. Peter Gibson, the head of public affairs at Boots, said that the WPL was unfair because none of the planned public transport improvements would provide a door-to-door service for employees. One of the new tram lines would come close but staff would still be left with a long walk.

He said: “There is no real alternative to the car for many people. They would have to take a bus or tram into the city centre and then another one back out to our site.”

Barry Horne, the council’s director for city development, said that its staff and councillors would also be liable for the charge. “If you have to pay to park at work it will make you think twice about whether you should be commuting by car.”

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