The BBC is reporting today that parking permits will be priced according to the emissions of the car they are being applied to.
"Richmond upon Thames residents with two high-emission cars could pay £750 a year, compared with £200 now, but the greenest cars would be exempt."
Electric cars would be free, cars like the Toyota Prius would be given a 50% discount and people carriers like the Renault Espace would be given a 200% increase.
It's a great idea, but is it open to abuse. Given that parking permits would last around a year, how difficult would it be to register your parking permit under the 'wrong' car? It's not too hard to imagine the purcahse of new cars coming with 'paid for' parking permits. Plenty of garages offer perks for new cars, like no-claims bonuses, or will a whole new industry sprint up offering parking permits, green car loans for the duration of your permit application, for example?
However, it's great to see councils taking action like this. Only last month we repoted that Bournemouth council were
fitting microchips to residents bins in order to charge them for the volume of rubbish they throw out, rather than recycle. It's a clear signal that the Government has told local councils that they can make more money by introducting green taxes like this, which, by itself, is not ideal, but if it results in less emissions and less waste, then that's a great side-effect.
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Well seeing as it's something to be done council-by-council, I don't think "paid for" parking permits being offered with new cars would be practical, thank God.
The only thing that concerns me, is that this seems to target people who can't afford a house with offroad parking in particular. It's just a way of avoiding hiking up road tax for the ULVs (unnecessarily large vehicles).
Also, some people have no choice but to buy a large vehicle. I'm not talking about the "I have a large family" rubbish that some people spit out and actually seem to believe. I'm talking about people like my aunt, who has to be able to get my cousin in her wheelchair in the back of her car, so has no choice but to have a huge vehicle.
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