I live just 3 miles from work, getting their by bus takes over an hour and involves quite a walk. I used to cycle when the weather was good and, if I ever get the bike fixed, will probably continue to do that when it's practical but these days I mostly drive to work, it can still take up to 45 minutes in rush hour but I've not been stood in a bus station at half six after leaving work at 5 asking myself if I should just walk home since.
I remember some mornings just abandoning waiting for a bus and walking, counting the governments CCTV cameras on my way (there are 14 watching me make my journey)

Tony, Hull, UK

Great idea - not ! I'm a shift worker - this week I finish at 2300 hours each night , the last bus has gone in this town - next week I have a 0500 start, the buses haven't started running. Being over 60 I have a free bus pass and would use it if I could - now to rub salt in the wound not only have I got a bus pass I can't use but they want to charge me for the use of my car for which there is no alternative

Brian, Rug by, UK

I,m assuming the tax wont apply to motorcycle/scooter parking, anyone who lives within 10 miles can ride one of these, also probably won.t apply to disabled spaces, get ready for even more orange badges (or whatever colour they are now)

david james, gosport, uk

No the answer isn't more taxes.

In Belgium employers get a tax benefit if they pay 50% of an employee's annual season ticket(s) (Train and/or Bus and/or underground)

Simply to organise - simple to check - and it works !

With some insurance companies you can even get a cheap "commuter " policy if you only use the car to and from the train station.

A win win situation for all.

John, Brussels, Belgium,

mmm, what a lovley choice. Either spend well over an hour going from bus to train and back to a bus to travel a measly 11 miles to get to work or jump on a motorobike and spend a much more enjoyable 14 minutes riding into work (or 20 mins in the car) and be hit in the pocket by the anti-motorist zealots yet again.

Public transport is shoved down our throats repeatedl as the altternative or best way to travel, but if is so very good (as the ecomentalists, local council, Ministry of Transport say) then why does it take well over an hour to travel a paltry 11 miles?

Unless you happen to live and work on the same major route your pretty much left with no choice but to use your own, personal, door to door transport. As soon as you abandon yourself to the whims of your local transport system you've no control over when you arrive you work, what sort of mood you'll be in when you get there and when (sometimes if) you get home at night.

Neil, Newcastle Upon Tyne, England

Speaking as someone who doesn't have a choice about using a car to get to work - and as a consequence is at the mercy of money-grabbing train companies who seem to be beyond the whit of government to regulate - I don't see why car drivers should be any more exempt from inflation-busting levies than I am. It's time car drivers woke up and smelt the coffee - you're killing us all, one way of another!

David Stevens, Sevenoaks, England

it would take me 2hrs to get to work by public transport. enough said as i like many outher people would love to use public transport as it would save me money but i cant.

graham, birmingham, birmingham

Public transport is a joke when you have to travel long distances to work. I have to drive more than 60 miles to my workplace, if I could find a job nearer home I would and i'm sure there are plenty more people in the same situation. if I stayed away from home all week I would lose the precious 30 mins I see my daughter each day... they really need to think this one through.

M Sheperton, Gainsbourgh, UK

A brilliant idea!

We need more cycle lanes, better bus services, more trains.

To allow this we need fewer cars and less road space allocated for motoring. Cars are an awful waste of land and energy, they kill or seriously injure over 3500 children in the UK every year, cause noise and air pollution and they are a major source of CO2 emissions.

We devote more land and a higher per-capita investment in our transport system than at any time in history and we are going more slowly than we were in 1900.

I wouldn't just tax cars I'd just not allow any private cars on any city streets.

BAN PRIVATE CARS IN URBAN AREAS! Streets are for people, not cars.

Rory, London,

Yes, it is the nucleus of a good idea, but needs to be refined so that, where decent tansport links do exist to a building, the charge is highest. Where there are poor transport links the charge should be lowest - or non existent.

This ensures that where there is no excuse not to use public transport, people are penalised the most. It also incentivises the powers that be to put in decent transport links BEFORE they can penalise drivers.

Not mentioned, of course, is the fragmentation of public transport. Buses are no longer controlled by the local authority so they have no control over the quality of those bus services - and the same applies to trains.

Hand in hand with this must be the re-nationalisation of public transport so that all such traffic control initiatives are part of bigger plans for cheap, accessible and reliable transport solutions.

Stuart, Halifax, West Yorkshire

Seems a bit odd Nottingham Council is considering this move, don't they receive enough subsidies form the South of the Country, or is the COuncil proposing to reduce the subsidies they receive as a consequence?

Martin, Reading, UK

Very sad! The Uk has a very expensive public transport, unreliable and not very clean.
Then politians do not travel by Public transport or have to live with a short salary. Maybe they shoul try for a couple of months...

Ana, Maidenhead, UK

My wife left Tottenham Hale station this morning about 07.40 arrived Ladbroke Grove sometime after 10.30. Is this the wonderful transport system that these prats in local government keep telling us we should be using..
Barry Horne says if you have to pay it will make you think twice about using your car. Thats rich coming from somebody who doesn't have to put up with the crap wages usually paid to the poorest of council workers or anybody else for that matter. Please Mr. Horne please take all our wages and give us vouchers because the way you and the other car haters are going that is all we are going to be left with or is it that you think only the rich and local & national politicians should have motor vehicles.

J. Cox, London, England

Simple away around this is for the companies to sub lease. That is they lease the space to an employee for 'say' £10 per year. That way they are not responsible for the space and the only cost to the empoyee is £10, which no doubt an employee would be more inclined to part with.

Jeff Baird, Angmering, West Sussex

I don't object to the idea of reducing the numbers of cars on the road, but Public transport still has a very long way to go before it's a practical alternative for many people. I live in Mansfield but work for a company on the ouskirts of Nottingham, and drop another person off on the way int work, picking them up on the way home. For me to get into work by Public Transport in time for my 07:30 start, I need to leave the house by 05:30 for a 15-minute walk to the local railway, followed by a 30 minute train ride. Another 15 minute walk across to the opposide side of the city then gets me a bus which will deliver me, at its closest a mile from work. The return Journey will get me back home by around 18:30, so a 13-hour day simply for the priviledge of being forced off the road, plus the daily cost is several times the WPL cost. Unfortunately it's just not practical, so my practical choices are - use the car and to hell with the cost, or give up work and sign on....

PaulD, Nottingham, Notts

What about those businesses where there aren't actually enough car parking spaces for all employees ? I can't see people being prepared to pay the tax when they aren't guaranteed a space. For people commuting into towns from rural locations it is often totally unfeasible to use public transport. This proposal is nothing more than a revenue generating exercise by the council.

Mark Taylor, Cambridge, England

Surely a mistake? Charge should be at least £3,500 per annum.

Save the planet, Liverpool, UK

this stupid it would cost me £20 a day to use public transport requiring no less than 6 changes to get to work, adding at lest 2 hours to my 20 min commuit.

Or i can drive and park opposite in teh local housing esstate which do you think i will be doing if they bring this in?

MR W B Jones, Liverpool,

Arnold Ward is confused. The purpose of the congestion charge is to justify and fund the many additional cameras that have been installed around Fortress London. Reducing congestion was never a major objective.

Eric Murray, Auckland,

Somebody has to pay for the overstaffed Council's final salary pension schemes.

Salty, Reading,

I bet the City Councillors won't pay the new tax. They will find some wiggly, wriggly way to escape it.

£12 million pays for two new tram lines? I don't think so. That's a little bit of spin from the Muralitharans of local government PR.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

I bet you my lunch money that Council employee's will in some way be exempt from this policy.

I amazed to note from the Act that spaces provided for use by suppliers or clients are also likely to be caught in this way.

I think that the most mature response would be for employers to simply close all their parking spaces to avoid the tax and see how the local council proposes to deal with the grid lock of delivery vehicles which begin to clog-up the streets.

Bob, Reading,

I work in Windsor, and this will not stop me or anyone I know from driving to work. We will just park in residential areas and annoy the residents like we used to before we had the office car park. I suspect a very large proportion of commuters around the country will do the same unless by some miracle they have cost effective and reliable public transport.

Scott Wylie, Windsor, UK

A far better idea is tax perks for firms who introduce home working. But management in this country associates home working with no working. Which goes only to show what they do when they work at home themselves. And govenrment loses money rather than making it. But it is a good test of how seriously thay take their green policy.

Roger Tilbury, Worthing, England

AS already mentioned why not make the public transport viable rather than leave no viable alternative. the trains and buses are overcrowded and far too expensive while in the case of the trains they are effective monopolies. subsidise them (with enforced improvement expendature) or renationalise and properly fund them and more people will likely use this public service, tax every other alternative and create either more lawbreakers or more unemployed

Ben, folkestone, uk

Most of the postings so far are typical of the narrow-minded, selfish approach of many motorists. They won't use public transport because it's inconvenient, expensive, slow, overcrowded etc. The corollary of that is that driving yourself to work is convenient, cheap, quick and comfortable. In other words, they're travelling "first class" - yet they don't expect to pay "first class" charges. I say we need both parking and congestion charges, with the profits going directly to provide better and cheaper public transport for those of us who are actually helping the situation by not using our own.

Barry, Wallington, UK

This will result in the following...
(1) Companies will reduce their car parks and workers will have to park on the streets surrounding.
(2) Residents will complain and parking restrictions will have to come into force in the locality too. A "neat trick" by the council to generate and keep itself busy with the need for even more parking zones/tickets etc
(3) The workers will pay more to get to and park at work - be it by public transport or their own car.
(4) The company bosses will have a reserved bay paid by the company as "an incentive to get and retain the quality of a manager we need"

Richard Garland, Whitefield, Greater Manchester

Make pubic transport a real alternative. I travel by public transport to and from work every day and hate it. I arrive at work feeling anxious and drained. So, a few suggestions:

1 - Clean the buses and trains. Remove chewing gum from the floor, hair grease from the windows and grime from the seats.

2 - Make sure buses and trains run on time. More than five minutes late and provide a full refund. If it is not the service operator's fault, they can claim the money back.

3 - Improve the behaviour of other people on the buses and trains. No shaving, no applying make-up, no shouting down mobile telephones (hearing several of these conversations every day has convinced me that, whatever the phone user might think, what they are talking about really isn't that interesting or important), turn the volume down on headphones. Frankly the single largest disincentive to use public transport is the 'public' element.

JS, Cambridge,

I know how this works having lived next to a hospital for many years. I chose my home carefully because it had ample, free on-street parking. I couldn't afford a garage. I worked shifts so public transport wasn't an option. The hospital introduced parking charges for staff, visitors and patients alike. Overnight the neighbourhood became congested with people avoiding the charges. Residents, unable to park in their own roads had to park in the hospital grounds and pay! We complained to the Council en-mass and lo-and-behold we had a Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) for which residents have to pay. At first we thought the fees reasonable but how silly we were! The Council plans increasing the fees annually and woe betide anyone foolish enough to own a second vehicle!

Dave Peers, Sutton, Surrey

No, no and again no. Let us use what power is left in our vote and remove these lazy, "tax everything" loafers from public office.

A society supported by a hard-working middle-class better leave that middle-class alone (as much as possible). Lower their tax burden, maintain their freedoms and protect them from criminals. Fail to do any of these and you sabotage the middle class. Sabotage the middle-class and you have poverty, crime and further-failing social services.

Use your vote Britain and ask only one question of would-be politicians. "Will you roll back the tax burden on the middle-class?"

John Blackley, Austin, TX, USA

M Mclean & Gengis Khan say that public transport is too expensive, but most city bus season tickets are £2 per day or less. Free parking is a subsidy and what should happen is that car parks are charged at a commercial rate. Then people can make a balanced choice on cost and convenience. Free commuter parking can only lead to endless congestion. Do motoriosts really want this?

Ray Wilkes, Bradford, yorks

What public transport???? I live 13 miles from my office and I'd have to walk, get a bus, walk, get a train, walk, get a bus and walk to the office. My local train station has a tiny number of parking spaces, all filled by 7am and zealously patrolled by parking wardens for minor infringements, and the greedy council sold off all the surrounding land to house builders rather than allocating it for desperately-needed parking. The dirty and dangerous buses talk an absolute eternity, there are no trams, and taxis are, well, cars. I wouldn't want to walk the streets around my office because there are lots of drug addicts in this corner of Glasgow, but I can drive here from home in half an hour. So come on ministers, give me an alternative!

Neil S, Glasgow, Scotland

this is a lunatic scheme! I work in a village with no public transport how on earth am i to get to work??

Albert Fisher, kettering,

Everyone moans about the economic, social and environmental cost of congestion, including the Nottingham chamber of commerce, and when a council comes up with an idea to reduce it AND improve public transport, the gut reaction of many is to lambast them with all largely irrelevant and out of date cliches damning public transport - most of which have not been fashionable since Thatcher's day. (The Nottingham tram is a great way of getting around) Lets face it if we want to live in cities - and most of us do - we have to be prepared to use collective transport. Simple maths tells us there isnt enough space for x number of cars, all with one person in them going to roughly the same area every the day - unless you want to concrete over all our beautiful public squares, parks etc...And thats before we start with air pollution, global warming,obesity etc. Owning a car in many cases is a convenience and not a necessity and, yes, you should pay more for it to subsidise those who do without

Mark, London,

My last 3 journies by rail saw my train cancelled. The first 2, from York, meant that I had to catch the next train and sit on the floor between packed carriages, whilst staff insisted on pushing the snack trollies past (and into) us, without offering us anything from it. That cost me £90 in both cases.

On the third occasion all trains were cancelled heading North, and I had to buy another ticket. Even when I'm delayed by train congestion and miss a connection, I've been told to pay again - last time I took a coach in protest.

I work from home, but when I do have to travel by public transport it completely stresses me out. It can't handle the load that exists now, how on Earth can it handle increased traffic?

The economy is on the verge of disaster thanks to record levels of debt, do we really need yet more taxes on either hard working people or struggling businesses trying to scratch a living in this overpriced and overtaxed country?

R. Liversidge, Ripon, North Yorkshire

You'd think the Councils were in favour of ever more edge of town office parks and urban sprawl.

Sam, Cambridge, UK

How long before we learn that the council, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that council employees will be exempted from this charge?

David Barber, Chesham,

Great idea if the council employees are the first to pay. the money raised shouldthen be used to reduce the cost of public transport. if this does not happen then it will be seen as just another tax.

Brian Laming, Winchester,

When public transport will get me to work fitting in with my shift patterns I won't need a parking space there. Until then I do. All this loopy idea is going to do is to increase the already large numbers of workers cars parked in suburban streets, if thats even possible!
My wifes company provides them free, marked spaces in a local multi storey - I reckon this would be the answer, put up a multi storey, allow the public in and reserve parking spaces for the employees! Mind you the local council would want a slice of it too, before they would allow planning permission!
Oh well, lets all play 'clobber the local council' for a change shall we? They can be voted out! (but Im not sure!)

Mike Asacret, Cambridge, England

Great idea. It will help to move all the cars that would have been parked in a works car park onto nearby residential streets. That way we can have more congestion due to parked cars and also an increased risk to pedestrians trying to cross roads, not to mention the added bonus of residents being unable to access their homes. Make it Nationwide.

Rick White, York, North Yorks

Back to the Future - workplace parking spaces used to be taxed as a 'benefit in kind' on peoples Income Tax, but it was abolished in the late 1980's

dave, gretna, scotland

I have no reasonable alternative but to use my car to get to work. Public transport would necessitate a bus and two trains and add 2 hours each way to my journey. My car journey is 40 mins. I am at may desk in the office by 7.30 in the morning having woken at 5.30 I leave the office at 7.30 at night and get home just after 8. A long enough day I think

Who in their right minds would suggest that I should get up at 4am and get home at 10pm day after day. Ooh, some greedy council obviously.

Jay, London,

will the government be increasing funding for public transportation in order to ease the already cramped, overpriced services that we have in britian. these are the same services which have been starved of investment over the past two decades or more, I dont think so!

A Maclaughlin, Nottingham, England

And whats to stop people driving to work and parking around the corner in a sidestreet..

So, the side effect is going to make it harder to park for everyone and not really reduce car use at all in practice..

I remember once moving into a village and asking what time the next bus was, and being told Tuesday..

Nanos, London, UK

my parent company is based int he UK (as was i till i got an assignment abroad) for me to commute from my home village to work 12 miles away if i were to use public transport would cost me in the region of 18 pounds per day. Plus on top of the ridiculous cost i would have to walk 30 minutes to the railway station, catch a train from Stanford le hope into london and another out of london to shenfield, ontop of that i would also have another 20 minutes walk. That would be to get there on time. The alternative would be to get a bus. The first one leaves my village at 9.40, one hour to basildon, 1 hour to brentwood. Great lunchtime already before i even get to work.

thank god i am out of the country

marcus, Köln, germany

It is time that someone formed a political party strictly for car owners & drivers to take over these old parties which are using the car owners & drivers as a MILKING COW . enough is enough for these old parties exploiting the environmental flag to squeeze as much money as they could from the car owners & drivers who have been subsidizing the whole cummunity for so long.

Sam, Wembley, England

Fifteen years ago, I worked in Bracknell and lived a 20 minute drive 14 miles away in Fleet. The only public transport available would have added another 3hrs travelling time to my working day. No-one ever thinks about the real world we all have to live in.

Fred James, Worcester, UK

What is wrong with these people that they feel the need to persecute those of use who are responsible and work. This is pure greed from the government's point of view.

What about working mums who have to be able to drop the kids at school and hurry off to their job. I would probably have to give up work as I would not be able to afford to take public transport nor spend the hours to make the journey which only takes twenty minutes by car.

This is lunacy.

Emma, Sandhurst, Berkshire

Another joke tax designed to fill pockets rather than bring cars off the road. £1.35 a day for a five day week. How many pay more than that an hour for city centre shopping parking? Go in to Westminster and pay £4 an hour, that's an incentive not to drive to work. But no regular worker out of london can afford that so non will pay, hence a low charge. Keep slowly bleeding the motorist, milk them for all they are worth, especially with no savings in the governments pocket, no gold in the bank and smoking going up to 18. Hail the dictatorship of debt government.

Alistair Kipling, Birmingham,

It would take me 3 hours to get to work on Public Transport. It takes me 45mins in the car. There is simply no alternative to the car for many people. These politicians need to get in the real world, and realise that we pay their salaries by going to work, and a car is a necessary part of that. And where will the money riased go? Into some more barmy schemes to further reduce the ability of the British Workforce to their jobs

CB, kinver, south staffs

Ratepayers: Come the next local election remind these power-mad imbeciles that they are there to do your bidding. Throw them out and keep them out. Let them know why they've been dumped and the rest will learn the lesson.

Alexander, Weymouth, Dorset

Yet another stealth tax. Is it this governments opinion that the only way to solve a problem is to tax it? Where will this money go, because for all the stealth taxes introduced, we never see the benefits! I cannot believe how this government is hitting drivers to the extreme taking into account the extortionate rate of tax already levied on fuel.

I think it's time that both government and local government should be held accountable for their budget. If you calculate all your taxes including the dreaded hidden VAT, you'll see that the bastards are already taking nearly half your wages.

May be the answer is for everyone to stop driving, thus loosing the government all the revenue produced from fuel, road tax, parking, fines from speeding and other offences, VAT , purchasing taxes and any other charges connected to motoring.

May be they'd then introduce a tax on any one who doesn't drive a car!!

Paul, Worthing,

Idiotic idea by small minded people who don't live in the real world. Around here residents moan if office workers park in the residential streets so the employer has provided a huge car park which makes everyone happy - residents because no cars on their streets and employees as their cars are safe and they don't have to walk dark streets at night. Win Win situation. This ridiculous idea will price the lower paid out of the car park and back onto the streets, where they and their vehicle are less safe and where traffic flow is impeded and residents get angry.

As mentioned, will particularly affect nurses and teachers as these large employers generally have large car parks.

Perhaps they just want us all to work from home?

CDB, Sussex,

I have a 10 to 12 minute 5 mile drive - public transport would take me 40 to 50 minutes. I am also in a position where I can pretty much ignore the weather - I object to arriving cold, hot or wet! I'd almost certainly change jobs to an unaffected area.

Ross Roberts, Basingstoke, Hampshire

The problem will schemes like this is they punish those who simply have to drive. I live 11 miles from my work place in a village. I can't use public transport none is available. So if it were introduced here I'd have to pay an extra parking charge to subsidise urban public transport that I can never use? Great idea.

Garrick Fincham, Norwich, UK

I live 5 miles from work, it would take me over an hour, and £7 a day using public transport. Why don't they address the underlying problem, rather than introducing yet another inefficient stealth tax, that once again hits the lower paid hardest. Thought the whole point of tax was it was proportional to what you earned.

Gordon, Dullsville,

Bad idea

Mark Beaumont, Chelmsford,

Employers with more than 10 parking spaces..so this will include council offices? But will councilers and the alike get a reduction or exclusion like they do on the conguestion charge? And the rest of us have to pay yet another tax. Great, I wonder if I had a motorised-unicycle, would that be exempt from the conguestion charge?

Chris Ray, Rayleigh, UK

Good Idea.

Peter, Chelmsford,

It's a great idea. I live in Nottingham, and there are lots of people on excellent public transport routes into the city who refuse to even find out about them. Well, fair enough, but they should be taxed heavily.

Tom Bradfield, nottingham, notts

Another tax on hospital and other Health Service workers. I think that there should be a tax imposed on the dimwits who think these things up. If they own cars they should have to pay a CCOL, Councillor's Car Owning Levy, the level of which shuld be directly connected to any work place levies they care to operate. Large prestigious Municipal vehicles should be paid for by the users and not the local tax payers (the same goes for politicians). Perhaps if we could see this level of fairness applied, there would be fewer protests.

Bill Q, Derby,

just shows the negative thinking that local goverment has, the
car is here to stay and will not go away, the local transport links in most areas are abysmal and dated.time is the most
important area in most working environments. the above article
proves once again all the government thinks about is robbing the public and workers with more taxes.

george william taylor, hull, uk

Getting the bus or train will cost around four pounds a day. So parking tax needs to be at least five pounds before it will have any effect, probably more than that because of the inconvenience and social stigma of public transport.

Malcolm McLean, Bradford, UK

The last time I travelled on public transport (London Waterloo to Guildford), the man standing in front of me (there was no room to sit) sneezed half of the mucal contents of his lungs directly into my face, the other half over the back of the woman stood next to me.

And the train arrived in Guildford, late, at more than three times the cost of the journey by car.

If I choose to sit in my car in slow-moving traffic, there's a bloody good reason for it.

Michael, Brighton,

We dont use the filthy, unreliable and overpriced public transport by choice so now they are going to force us to use it. What next a car ban to add to all the other bans. Away with these money grabbing council numpties.

Gengis Khan, Leeds, England

This is such an obvious, simpler and more effective alternative to the complexity of congestion charging that Ken Livingston and his advisors should be a laughing stock for their idiocy.

Arnold Ward, Weybridge, Surrey, UK

Yet another ridiculous idea that seeks to raise revenue for Councils from people trying to earn their living in a country where affordable and good public transport is non-existant.

Mel, ex-UK, Australia

Is this the same public transport that keeps increasing in cost?

Scott, London, UK

More mad thinking by cash-hungry, screw-the-taxpayer politicians and unaccountable wastrel local body bureaucrats. If the UK was like many European countries with fast, clean, reliable buses, trams and suburban trains, yes, but too many UK transport routes are too city centre-focused. I live in Brum and commute to an industrial estate on the outskirts of Redditch - there is no way I could do this by public transport.

Prediction - companies will axe on-premises parking and the congestion will move to industrial estate streets. Then the council noddies will double-yelllow-line those and, with any luck, the workers will then go and burn down the council offices with the anti-motorist noddies in it.

Reg Green, Birmingham, UK