UK city becomes first to charge SUV drivers more for parking

If you're parking your SUV across the UK, there's one city you'll now need to pay for parking in. Cardiff council plans to charge higher parking fees for heavier, larger vehicles such as SUVs in the city.

During a meeting on Thursday, the council agreed with recommendations to overhaul the city's parking. This included making the drivers of larger and heavier cars pay a surcharge.

The decision is one which will help to tackle "carspreading" in Cardiff and reduce the number of large heavy vehicles which pose a danger to pedestrians and can cause more damage to road infrastructure.

The council's new City Parking Plan aims to make Cardiff's streets greener and more fairly balanced between parking priority and pedestrian or cycling space.

It is hoped the plan would also reduce air pollution. Drivers of diesel cars would have to pay a surcharge to encourage them to switch to less polluting vehicles.

To encourage SUV drivers to switch to smaller vehicles, the council aims to implement a parking surcharge for vehicles heavier than 2,400kg.

This threshold will later be reduced to 2,000kg to further disincentivise the driving of heavier personal vehicles in the city.

This additional charge for SUVs will be levied on top of the base cost of a parking permit in the city, which includes visitor and resident permits.

Residents will be able to apply for up to two permits for vehicles registered at their address.

While Cardiff may be the first city to put this measure in place, it is possible that other UK cities could follow.

Cardiff Council's cabinet member for climate change, strategic planning, and transport, Cllr Dan De'Ath, said the council was bringing forward the parking plan because "large parts of our inner city are absolutely saturated with cars".

He said the surcharge is aimed at big "American-style" SUVs that are "much larger than your average car", adding that the chances of a child dying is "grossly inflated" if they are hit by a vehicle of this size.

Cllr De'Ath added: "We don't think it is unreasonable for drivers of those vehicles to have to pay a little more."