Pricey nightlife in the West End

The cost of West End parking fees could become prohibitive from next January.

Westminster council leader Colin Barrow wants to abolish free parking on single yellow lines and parking bays after 6.30pm during the week and between 1pm and 6pm on Sundays. The council is planning to charge up to £4.80 an hour in the West End up to midnight on weekdays and on Sunday afternoons from January 9, 2012.

Council leaders say it is a bid to ease evening congestion.

But Government ministers, the capital's main employers, small shop owners and unions have condemned the measure as a revenue-raising raid on motorists that could stop people from driving to the West End. 

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson last week called on Westminster council to abandon plans for a nightlife tax on central London after other cities warned of parking fees negative economic impact on many businesses.

People who go to Soho, Covent Garden and Mayfair in the evenings and at weekends generally leave their cars and go to restaurants, bars, pubs, cinemas or theatres. If the council makes it consistently more expensive to have a night out in central London, people will go elsewhere.

And most worrying of all is the impact on jobs, as many places and firms could face closure.

On the high street things are already looking a bit shaky and with the current economic climate, these parking charges could be injurious to the city’s economy.