Parking penalty

It is simply not justifiable for these councils, and others, to

penalise motorists yet again because of the continuing inadequacies of the public transport network in Britain's major towns and cities.

Like road-pricing, this issue is not going to go away in spite of yesterday's denials. And, while Leeds City Council says it has no immediate plans to pursue this route, it accepts that it might have to look at "potential revenue streams" once the ramifications of the Government's spending cuts are known.

However, what politicians of all persuasions fail to appreciate is that UK motorists are already taxed extensively – and that they have been effectively used as a "cash-cow" to prop up the Government's faltering finances. They already pay a heavy price for the privilege of driving on a sub-standard road network that has not kept pace with the country's economic growth through the decades.

There might – just – be some justification for such an approach if there was a cast-iron guarantee that money raised from workplace parking schemes was used to finance transport improvements in the town or city where the revenue was generated.

Yet there's also an inherent risk that such an approach might prompt businesses to relocate outside areas where such a policy operates, and relocate to a district where motorists can park for free at work. And this is before councils even consider how such a scheme can be properly enforced without creating another costly tier of bureaucracy, the issue at the heart of the debate about whether councils should scale back their use of speed cameras or not.