Ditching road tolls 'would be unworkable'

Opposition politicians said it would cost the city council millions of pounds to scrap the initiative and predicted such a move would create a financial black hole which could sink the 473 million plan to reintroduce trams to Edinburgh.

City leaders have pledged to axe the 2-per-day charge after two years if an independent auditor finds it isn’t working.

It also emerged today nearly 42,000 people in the Capital will be prevented from voting in the tolls referendum as their names don’t appear on the edited electoral register.

Lib Dem councillor Fred Mackintosh said:

"This idea is totally unworkable. By October 2008, they will have spent 22m building all the cameras [to monitor congestion charging] and they will have to pay for that. They will have started building tram line three by the end of 2008, which means they will have signed a contract to build that 130m scheme. If congestion charging goes, there will be nothing to pay for that."

City transport leader Andrew Burns yesterday announced an Independent Audit Review Panel will be established to look at the effects of the toll, including traffic levels, public transport use, road safety, air pollution and economic impact.

City Tory leader Iain Whyte said: "It seems to me the Labour party are running around looking at any measures they can possibly think of now to try to calm people’s fears.

"This is all a panic reaction to knowing they are highly likely to have a very embarrassing defeat.

The answer is not to have the road tolls in the first place."

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Retail Consortium added: "We would have reservations if it’s deemed [tolls] have had a negative economic impact. If they do have to scrap the scheme, it might have already damaged the retail sector so the council would have to work with retailers to mitigate that impact."

Councillor Burns today said it was "simply not the case" that the review plans were impractical, adding that any contracts to run the congestion-charging scheme or build tram line three could have clauses written in them allowing for a "break" in proceedings if necessary.

He said: "This is extremely ill-informed comment from the opposition camp and it’s incorrect. It is standard practice to have break clauses in contracts of this complexity. It is widely known two companies are working on the development of potential schemes on this right now with a break clause in March if needed.

Meanwhile, city officials confirmed 88 per cent of Edinburgh’s electorate will be able to vote in the February 7 referendum.

Yesterday’s Evening News reported claims voters had been "cold-called" at home by the council and asked about the road toll referendum. The telephone canvassing has in fact been orchestrated and paid for by the Yes to Edinburgh campaign - which is being run independently of the council.