• Home
• Chamber Publications
• Company Credit Checks
• Contact Us
• DNCC Shop
• Local Enterprise Partnerships
• Member to Member Services
• Members Briefings
• Members Directory
• News & Press Releases
• Quarterly Economic Survey
• Submit News Article
• Vacancies
• Virtual Office Service
• Your Members Account

Many businesses believe that congestion charging in Derby could increase costs whilst making little impact on traffic jams, claims Derbyshire Chamber.

The conclusions are based on a survey of businesses in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire in response to a bid by local authorities in the three counties for £1.86m from the Governments Transport Innovation Fund (TIF). The money is to fund an investigation of the potential for road pricing schemes and other measures to reduce congestion over the next 15 years.

While businesses in Derbyshire were generally supportive of a study to map congestion in urban areas, only 22% would support a road-charging scheme. When asked about the impacts of such a scheme, the same percentage thought it would reduce congestion and only 19% thought it would increase transport investment in Derby.

A significant proportion (44%) of respondents expected such a move would increase costs, and 11% were concerned it would reduce trade and cause recruitment problems.

A vox pop among professionals in the city revealed typically informed and intelligent arguments on both sides. Among those firmly set against the charge is Mark Wingfield of international sales and marketing consultancy, MWSigma.com, which is based in Derby. He avoids the jams by an early start at his base in the ID Centre.

He said: I think congestion charging is missing the point, tackling the symptom and not the problem. Travelling at peak hours, there are so many people who are using their cars by themselves instead of sharing, walking, taking the bus or cycling. And on the motorways, we could avoid a lot of hold-ups by moving over instead of sticking in the middle and outer lanes. Congestion charging is an easy way out that does not solve the problem.

On the other side of the debate, Dawn Foote, managing director of another Derby firm, brand communications agency Katapult, was warmer to the idea of congestion charging. She said: I think a lot of us who live in the city are guilty of using our cars out of convenience on occasions when we could. Measures like congestion charging could help to change those habits and that's got to be a good thing. However it cannot and will not work in isolation - other measures have to be introduced to make it easier for people to embrace more environmentally friendly methods of transport and the first thing has to be a convenient, integrated and reliable public transport system.

Businesses in Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire were even less supportive of road-user charging, with more businesses expecting reductions in trade, increases in costs and recruitment problems. And fewer expected increases in transport investment as a result of such charging.

President of Derbyshire Chamber, David Merifield, said: Businesses are supportive of the TIF bid as it seeks to map congestion and consider options for tackling congestion, which is very costly to businesses. Members do, however, have concerns that congestion charging could have negative impacts on trade, recruitment and increased costs for businesses. What we need are measures that will reduce congestion without damaging the economy and more investment in local transport infrastructure improvements.