Westminster Tories unveil £2000 parking tax – and call it a concession

Westminster Council – the council who tried to ban homelessness and soup runs – have announced a £2,000 a year ‘night-life parking tax’ for casino workers, musicians, actors, restaurant and bar workers and others who keep the West End evening economy working. The Council says that it is offering night time workers the ‘concession’ of paying £8 a night to park in one of the Council’s West End car parks from 9th January 2012, following the Council’s decision to ban free parking on single yellow lines in the Evening and on Sundays.

This ‘concession’ works out at £40 a week – £2,000 a year.

Westminster Council announced this ‘bargain offer’ after a massive outcry by low-income night workers at the prospect of having to pay daily parking charges of up to £4.80p an hour to park in the West End.

Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Labour Group on Westminster Council, said:

“Westminster Conservatives are so out of touch with reality that they actually believe that charging West End workers £8 a night to park is ‘good news’. If the Government needed any reason to step in and stop this madness then this is the time to act.”