|
|
 |
| |
Do you want to clobber 4x4s?
£90,000 referendum on higher parking fees
A REFERENDUM on plans to charge drivers of gas-guzzling 4x4s higher parking charges will cost council tax payers £90,000, the Tribune has learned.
The Town Hall wants motorists to pay parking fees on a sliding scale according to the size of their cars, with off-road vehicles paying most and battery-powered cars charged nothing.
But opposition Labour councillors last night (Thursday) urged the ruling Liberal Democrats to “show some leadership” and press on with the proposals without spending tens of thousands of pounds on a referendum.
A one-year CPZ permit currently costs £95, with a £20 discount for cars of less than 1400cc.
Now, in plans unveiled by the council’s top brass on Wednesday, the Lib Dems want to charge drivers of the biggest cars between £160 and £200. Motorists with smaller vehicles will have to pay less – from nothing to £85.
Town Hall Lib Dem leader Councillor James Kempton called it an “ambitious plan” to tempt drivers away from their gas guzzlers.
Although not a motorist himself, he says his partner drives a BMW with an 1800cc engine – the third worst polluter on the Town Hall’s league table.
Cllr Kempton said the aim of the new charges is not to make money. However, the higher fees could bring in an extra £160,000.
Cllr Kempton said: “This is an ambitious plan and we will be asking people whether they want it or not. Some people will be better off and others will be worse off. We’ve got a scheme here which we think is going to work. If people don’t think it will work they will give us a raspberry and send us back to the drawing board.”
He added that the result of the survey of Islington’s 82,000 households would be binding.
But he would not be drawn on the baseline figure – the minimum number of respondents from which the council would be prepared to extract meaningful information.
Councillor James Murray, opposition Labour environment spokesman, said: “They should be showing some kind of leadership on this. I appreciate what they are doing but it’s a lot of money to spend.
“We’ve got to take firm decisions and show the way to tackle climate change rather than spending money on another consultation.”
The referendum, to be managed by the Electoral Commission, will take place around June.
The scheme to charge drivers of gas guzzlers more was first piloted in Richmond and has been followed by other London boroughs.
The referendum will be only the second in Islington in recent years. The last were in 2001 when there was a vote on whether to have an elected mayor and another on a new Church of England secondary school.
|
 |
| |
|
|
|
