20 August 2009
Source: Surveyor (The weekly magazine for those involved in or with the local government technical professions. <strong>Surveyor</strong> contains the latest news and in-depth feature articles on highways, traffic & transportation, road safety, planning, waste management, environmental control and much more. It also contains the leading recruitment advertising section in the industry.)

Boots ‘will take steps’ to escape workplace levy


One of Nottingham’s biggest employers has threatened to move its entire car parking provision across the city boundary in order to avoid paying the workplace parking levy (WPL).

Boots UK, which employs around 7,000 people at its Nottingham headquarters, said it was ‘outrageous’ that the city council had approved the WPL after the transport select committee had described the consultation process as ‘deeply flawed’.

‘This will put an additional tax burden of more than £500,000 a year on our business at a time when Nottingham businesses, workers and households will be recovering from a deep recession,’ said Peter Gibson, director of public policy, Alliance Boots.

‘We will be seeking to challenge this decision, and we are calling for an immediate public inquiry.’

The company’s headquarters straddle both city and county boundaries, so ‘we are in the fortunate position of being able to look at the best use of space on our site,’ Gibson added.

There are around 4,500 parking spaces on site, 3,000 of which are in the city boundary and 1,500 beyond it.

Cllr Jane Urquhart, Nottingham City Council’s portfolio holder for transport, said: ‘We are disappointed that Boots, which takes its corporate social responsibility seriously, would suggest building new car parks and we would hope it will conclude that this is not a solution.’



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