ALLEGATIONS that local authorities plan to tax company car parking via back door increases in business rates have been refuted by council representatives. The denials follow press speculation over 'secret' talks between 40 local authorities over the introduction of punitive parking taxes without the need for Government legislation.

Some local authorities are already asking employers to seek ways of discouraging staff from driving into work, but the reports suggested councils could penalise private parking provision by increasing business rates which companies would in-turn recoup from employees.

In its transport Green Paper, 'The Way Forward', released last year, the Government put the issues of urban road pricing and parking taxes on the agenda as means of addressing the increasing congestion problems faced by the UK's leading cities. A joint working party involving local authorities and the Department of Transport has been established but has yet to meet to begin serious discussion of the issues.