Jason Smith, Chairman of Newcastle Conservatives, has accused LibDems of imposing a stealth tax on commuters and called for an improvement to park and ride facilities in the city after Local Conservatives obtained figures from Newcastle City Council which showed that people parking in the city were charged almost £10million in 2006/7.

Jason Smith said: “Newcastle’s commuters are paying the equivalent of 10,000 households paying council tax at Band B, excluding police and fire services, to park in the city.   

“Newcastle desperately needs more park and ride places and Liberal Democrats must take action urgently to address the problem. Nottingham, the regional capital of the East Midlands, has 4000 FREE spaces in 7 park and ride facilities located outside the city centre whilst Newcastle has less than 500 in three locations and all of these involve a charge of £1 per day. LibDems seem to suffer from a lack of ambition in this area.

“I realise that this is not a major issue for LibDem councillors, who enjoy free parking at the civic centre. Perhaps if they had to pay for parking, they would be less willing to impose an ever increasing stealth tax on road users whilst not delivering improvements to public transport connectivity that would encourage people out of their cars.”

Tags: LibDem Stealth Taxes Jason Smith Transport