THE government's latest giveaway – free parking at most of Scotland's hospitals – will be widely welcomed, but it will open them up once more to accusations of pursuing populist policies with little regard for the consequences.
It is not the first time the SNP will stand charged with attempting to buy popularity. In its election manifesto last year it pledged to deliver on a number of areas which looked likely vote winners. And, to give the government credit, to date it h
as delivered on most. But all are at a cost to the public purse.
The phasing out of prescription charges has gone ahead but in three years time, when they are totally free, the initiative will cost £57 million a year to deliver. As promised, bridge tolls on the Forth and Tay were abolished, bringing them into line with the Erskine and Skye bridges where charges no longer applied.
But, while the average motorist crossing the Forth each day is £200 a year better off, the bridge operators are £12m a year poorer and have to find other ways of raising the money to pay for the maintenance of the structure.
The timing of that move was also questionable. Tolls were abolished at a time when it was revealed a new bridge might be required. And while the SNP has still to reveal how it is going to raise the estimated £4 billion needed to pay for a new crossing, the opportunity to gather at least part of the revenue required over the years until it has been completed has been thrown away.
The end of the student graduate endowment was another popular move, but one which will cost £20m a year.
Few will argue with the scrapping of hospital parking charges, which has been branded a "tax on the sick". Those attending or visiting the Western or St John's will benefit, but the SNP's latest handout will cost NHS Lothian almost £1m a year and the health service in Scotland £5.5m annually.
NHS Lothian says it makes no money from parking and that the money collected only covers the running costs. But now it will have to find revenue to keep them open and maintained from other sources. Ironically the most expensive hospital car parks – like those at the ERI – will escape the net as they are privately run. The government has no power to scrap charges at hospitals built under PFI agreements and the cost of buying out the long term contracts from the firms that run them will have been too prohibitive, even for the free spending SNP.
It is OK for the SNP to play Robin Hood if they wish. But they should remember it is other people's money that they are giving away with seemingly little regard to the impact it will have or for how they will make up any shortfall in their budgets. At some point the books are going to have to balance.
The full article contains 503 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
