Bristol could roll out new parking charges by car SIZE with the heaviest and most polluting paying more

Drivers in the South West could soon face parking charges determined by the size of their car, if proposed policy goes through.

Bristol City Council is looking into a new parking ‘strategy’ which will be based on ‘weight, emissions and size-based pricing’.

This follows the examples of Lambeth and Bath councils which have both introduced similar parking schemes which penalise drivers of larger, heavier polluting cars.

Bristol City Council is in the ‘very early stages’ of planning a shift in regulations which would cars like SUVs pay more to park.

A committee report said: ‘The project will include outlining our strategy for managing on-street, off-street and resident parking scheme parking, including pricing strategy, demand management and variations on pricing categories, e.g. weight, emissions and size-based pricing.’

This proposed steeper charge for drivers of big cars like SUVs goes alongside a task group exploration into green kerbside expansion.

A City Hall committee will look into ‘a gradual reallocation of [kerbside] space to sustainable modes of transport and alternative uses, e.g. tree planting, SUDs [sustainable drainage systems], cycle hangars and seating.’ 

A committee report said: ‘The project will include outlining our strategy for managing on-street, off-street and resident parking scheme parking, including pricing strategy, demand management and variations on pricing categories, e.g. weight, emissions and size-based pricing’

Bristol councillors had previously mentioned a potential ban on pavement parking too – something Scotland recently introduced and Wales and England are considering.

Councillors previously mentioned a potential ban on pavement parking, which could be rolled out in certain parts of the city. 

Said to be ‘heavily influenced’ by Lambeth – who’s Kerbside Strategy has ‘ambitious plans to transform 25 per cent of its kerbside space into places for people, and not just cars – Bristol is planning to turn a quarter of street-side space into places for trees, benches and bicycle storage. 

Taking after Lambeth part of the push for size-based parking is to also look into ‘a gradual reallocation of [kerbside] space to sustainable modes of transport and alternative uses, e.g. tree planting, SUDs [sustainable drainage systems], cycle hangars and seating’

Lambeth, like other London boroughs, bases the cost of a resident’s parking permit on vehicle carbon emissions. 

Bath already has a emissions-based parking system, which requires owners of larger more polluting cars to pay more. 

On 24 October, transport policy committee councillors will vote on establishing a task and finish group to explore options, and then the task group will have a one-hour private online meeting every month, with the project expected to take a year to develop.

The public will then be consulted on any proposed changes to parking rules, before the transport committee takes the final decision.

Bath’s parking charged by emissions

As reported by This is Money in September 2023, Bath now has ULEZ-style rules where owners of diesel cars and some high-emission petrol models are charged more to use council-owned car parks in the city centre.

Bath and North East Somerset (BANES) Council introduced it in order to encourage a ‘shift to cleaner, more sustainable travel in the city’. 

When it was introduced last year it was estimated that 66 per cent of car park users will see additional parking charges – roughly a 47 per cent hike from £1.70 per hour to £2.50.

New charges for petrol, hybrid and electric models from 8 September were proposed last September and are now in force

Drivers of diesel cars are charged differently – with the cost of parking at the eight location now more expensive

Only drivers of petrol and models with emissions below 131g/km CO2 saw no price increase, which is also the case for EVs.

For example, a petrol car with CO2 emissions of 131 to 150g/km saw costs increase from £1.70 to £1.80 for one hour of parking. 

However, a diesel model falling into the same emissions bracket will be charged 50p extra – £2.30.

Individual charges will be calculated automatically by pay-and-display machines when motorists enter their registration number. 

Drivers will need to check their vehicle’s emissions on the Government’s website to work out if they need to pay or not. 

The cars that are BANNED from council car parks because they’re too long

As cars get larger but parking spaces don’t increase accordingly, drivers are left with the problem of cars being too big for spaces. 

Five local councils have currently got length restrictions on vehicles using their parking facilities, with most setting a limit at 5 metres, which is shorter than a Range Rover and Mercedes-Benz S-Class. 

These five councils are: Wokingham, South Hams, Broadland and South Norfolk, and West Devon.

An Autocar Freedom of Information request found that more than nine in ten councils have no intention of making their parking bays bigger to accommodate today’s much larger vehicles, which are said to be growing 1cm wider every two years. 

And avoiding cars of over five metres is surprisingly hard as seven out of the top 10 best-selling car brands in the UK last year produce at least one car that exceeds this length.

Cars including the Audi A8 and Kia’s electric EV9 SUV exceed this restriction, as is the latest Range Rover and both the Tesla Model S and Model X EVs.