CALLING for transport supremo John Prescott to drop plans to let town halls tax company car parks, business chiefs today warned that it would cost British firms a staggering £2 billion a year - even if only a quarter of councils did so.

This estimate by the British Chambers of Commerce is, of course, one that comes from an interest group and may be wildly exaggerated.

But whatever the true impact, there is no doubt a burden will be placed on business and their customers for little in the way of congestion-relief that the scheme is supposed to bring.

The car parks will still be used because they are needed - because for many business people, public transport is not an alternative and for those to whom it may be, it is an unacceptable and unattractive one.

The congestion will continue and the government will only reap more already-huge resentment from the highly-taxed motorists.

And it will have to explain the morality of letting public bodies tax private facilities.

Its task is to improve public transport first, rather than seek to force people to use the shoddy system that exists at present.

And deep into its third year in office, it has not even made a start.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.