It’s a controversial topic that divides opinion: should people with bigger cars pay more for parking? Cardiff has become the latest council to ponder the question. As part of a public consultation, it’s asking for views on whether residents with larger vehicles should pay more for permits.
We headed to Haringey to see what local residents thought. “I think it’s a load of crap,” Nev says, adding he has grown weary of traffic-reducing and environmental policies in the borough.
A YouGov poll last year found 39% of adults thought there should be higher parking fees for bigger and heavier cars, while 53% thought all cars should have the same parking fees.
But what do we actually mean by bigger? In Haringey, where the price of a permit already varies depending on your car’s emissions, the council proposed adding a 5% surcharge for medium vehicles 4-4.49m long, and a 10% surcharge for large vehicles over 4.5m long.
Oliver Lord is from the Clean Cities campaign group, which worked on the campaign in Paris arguing that SUVs are dangerous and bad for the environment. He says it is “inevitable” that size-based parking charges will come to the UK, pointing to the fact that 60% of car sales in the UK last year were SUVs.
But Erin Baker, editorial director at AutoTrader, is against blanket policies based on size because she says cars can vary greatly. For instance, some models may be long or heavy but still be fuel-efficient.
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