THE head of Chrysler Jeep Imports UK has warned he could close down its base at Dover if the Government introduces a workplace parking tax in Tuesday's Budget. Richard Mackay said such a tax would be the 'final straw' as the company was already having to negotiate unsatisfactory traffic conditions around its Kent headquarters.

He said: 'If the Chancellor of the Exchequer decides to introduce a tax on parking places then I will look to moving operations to another town where we will have better access. At our location our superb workforce has been blighted by years of inaction in terms of transport planning. We have car transporters driving through housing estates to get to the industrial site we are on because nothing has been done about providing a decent access road. A parking place tax would be the final straw and we would move to, perhaps Ashford which has all the access in the world.'

Although there is a 150-space car park, parking conditions at the Dover base are less than satisfactory with staff parking on roadsides and verges. The 170-staff at Dover could move, Mackay said, to a site less than 30 miles away. While Dover is served by just the A2 and A20, Ashford, in Kent, lies on the M20, as well as being the point of convergence for four A-roads. While accusing the Government of failing to have thought through the issue of workplace parking charges Mackay said Chrysler Jeep would not be alone in looking to relocate to places better served by the road network should they be introduced.

'Areas of the country will become ghettos as companies will move to better areas they will feel less aggrieved about paying for parking at,' he said.