OXFORDSHIRE County Council is planning to introduce a parking levy for businesses in Oxford City Centre.

Research and development of the scheme is reported to cost the tax payer in the region of £100,000.

The county council also claims the scheme will fund improvements to Oxford’s transport network, but fails to explain how much the scheme will produce, or cost local businesses.

The levy will mean Oxford’s local businesses that have struggled in recent years with rising costs will be taxed twice for parking.

Local businesses also pay business rates, which is a local tax that is paid by the occupiers of all non-domestic / business property, in the same way that council tax is a tax on domestic property.

Business rates are charged on most business properties such as: shops, offices, pubs, warehouses, factories, hotels and restaurants.

A business property’s rateable value is an assessment of the annual rent the property would rent for if it were available to let on the open market at a fixed valuation date.

The rateable value is assessed by the Valuation Office Agency, which is an agency of HM Revenue and Customs.

When calculating the rateable value the properties amenities such as parking facilities, locality, and area are included in the final figure.

This means, if introduced, local businesses in Oxford will have to pay a double tax for parking. One tax in the form of business rates going to central government and an additional workplace levy to the county council.

This I believe is unfair, and we should do as much as we can to support our local businesses, rather than squeeze them out of business.

The additional impact of a workplace levy will potentially mean areas like Cowley will suffer even further from employees, employers and shoppers leaving their vehicles to seek other means into the city.

I wish I could say cycling into Oxford would be a healthier option. In practice cycle lanes are often blocked or poorly marked/maintained. Certainly not an option if you have small children, or if you want to shop.

The county council’s answer to parking problems the workplace levy would create outside of the city, is to introduce a city-wide CPZ, which simply means solving one problem by creating another problem. When taking into account the wider impact of a workplace levy, the scheme seems like a ludicrous methodically to solving Oxford’s traffic problems.

The introduction of a workplace levy will be the Trojan horse to introduce CPZ’s (Controlled Parking Zones) in areas like Cowley, which has become Britain’s biggest park-and-ride.

A CPZ would simply be a means of taxing lower and middle income families to further fill the county coffers. Having gone through the process of conducting a survey for a CPZ in Cowley a few years ago, the majority of residents voted against a CPZ. So it appears that a workplace levy appears to be a county council trojan horse to introduce a city wide CPZ.

Hands off Oxford.

David Henwood Oxford City Councillor, Cowley Ward David Nicholls Close, Littlemore