Olympic car parking prices – fair on company car drivers?
Are the new Olympic car parking prices too high?
Commuters and company car drivers have recently been outraged by the soaring prices at car parks in central London. Although they are only meant to be a temporary fixture for this years London Olympics it is another expense we could do without. NCP, Britain’s biggest car park operator is the main culprit and has been accused of Olympic ‘profiteering’ with their new sky high prices. The AA have said the new car parking fees were a ‘rip-off’ that ‘smacked of profiteering’, had no transport justification, and ‘deserve an Olympic gold for sheer gall.’
“In London’s busy Soho entertainment district, motorists at NCP’s Brewer Street complained that a day’s parking had soared by £13 from £47 to £60 – an increase of 28 per cent.
But an hour’s parking rose 42 per cent from £7 to £10, two hours rose from £14 to £20, four hours from £27 to £40, and six hours from £40 to £50. NCP has also increased the number of parking spaces there by 135 – from 350 to 485.
Company director Thomas Tope who parks daily at the Soho site said: ’I was shocked. I park there every day. It was £47 a day, now suddenly it’s gone up to £60. I was outraged.
I was told the increased price would be in effect for duration of the Games.’
Mr Tope, 57, global sales director of the Dreyfuss Group which includes Rotary watches, parks his Mercedes-E-class coupe in the car-park after his commute from Buckingham to his office in Regent Street said: ’I spoke to the lady at the car park and said there must be a mistake. She said the price had gone up because of the Olympics.
‘It’s outrageous. It is exorbitant. It’s not as if you can get any more cars in. The overheads will be roughly the same. They’re simply hiking the price to boost profits during the Olympics”
‘Sometimes I do take the train. But I need the car in town because I often have to drive somewhere on business to see a client.’” – Taken from the Daily Mail
