ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½

If a WPL is introduced for ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½

• the employer occupying any premises is responsible for paying the WPL charge, regardless of whether they own the building and land or not.
• if you have a large parking area, but it isn’t occupied by vehicles you don’t pay for empty parking spaces.

Parking places occupied by vehicles used by customers will not need to be licensed and will not be charged.

Considerations for time restrictions

We can vary the times that a WPL would applies. For example, it could apply only for a set period such as 7am to 7pm. Vehicles parked outside of the set period would be exempt. This may be a way of accommodating employees who work shifts or unsocial hours, where other ways of travelling to work may not always be available or suitable.

We would need to balance a decision to do this against practical considerations of

• enforcing the WPL scheme
• the impact it might have on achieving the scheme’s aims such as
  • reducing congestion
  • improving air quality
  • meeting our net zero 2030 targets.

Restricting the WPL to certain times of the day would almost certainly increase the peak congestion (rush hour) periods as drivers adjust their journey times to avoid the peak times. This would move the congestion periods rather than reducing it.

We will work with businesses to understand the need for early or late starts and discuss reasonable alternatives. For example, the Nottingham WPL allows a grace period at shift handover times. Other options could include

• applying a discount at certain times
• adding an exemption for workplaces that primarily provide parking for shift working.

Considerations for parking in residential areas

In ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ we understand that a WPL might mean more people park in areas surrounding their workplace or next to public transport stops. This is known as 'displaced parking'. As a WPL would raise new funds, some of it could be spent on measures to prevent displaced parking.

We welcome views on this in the