[katex]

Suspect this will never get off the ground due to it not being very popular .. summat will have to be done eventually and whatever scheme will prove unacceptable to the majority of motorists.

Asked me oracle, involved in transport, his views, answered as follows :

'It will generate some public and corporate opposition - it does seem
like a significant vote loser. However, it would be easy to implement
because it is supported (in general) by planning policy.

My view is that the larger 'out-of-town' supermarkets do have a role in
retail provision but they do so at the expense of the town centres that
we all aspire to be attached to - look at the aspirations for Accrington
'floral market town'. The town centre used to be the place to conduct
the 'linked trip' (ie. the trip where you would do a number of
different things - visit the post office, greengrocers, bank etc all in
one go) but access to the car, plus restrictions on accessing town
centres (car parking charges, congestion, pedestrianisation etc), have
meant that visiting Tesco, Sainsbury, Aldi, Waitrose is a more
convenient option. The consequence of this shift to retail shopping at
large-shed supermarkets is the closure of the previously vital town
centre shops. The issue is not just related to economic competition but
also to other environmental factors, of which, access to parking has
become a vital consideration.

From a purely fiscal perspective, the use of land for car parking is
terribly inefficient. The council make no money from free car parking.
Flat, surface car parking (opposed to multi-storey) represents a
terrible waste of potential development land. If a developer builds
flats, the council makes money through council tax. If the developer
builds business units, the council makes money through business rates.
If the developer builds car parking, the council (if it doesn't own the
car parking) actually incurs a net loss because they have to service
access to the car parking (access roads, drainage etc).

I guess people don't consider the wider impacts of their individual
behaviour. Introducing car parking charges at out-of-town supermarkets
is just one mechanism that can be employed to re-focus development
activity back into town centres. The alternative is we end up like
America - no town centres and just a maze of Walmarts connected by
five-lane highways and no footways.'