City Burns Night 'road tolls rally' is attacked

CITY leaders were at the centre of a new road tolls row today over plans for a high-profile public debate on the controversial issue.

Officials have set a budget of around 34,000 for the event - more than they have spent on a campaign to ensure people know they are entitled to a vote in the referendum on congestion charging.

The public meeting, at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre on Burns Night, is to be chaired by top BBC presenter Lesley Riddoch.

However, it has been branded a "road toll rally" after opposition councillors were banned from the panel at the event.

Fears have also been raised that many people will miss the event altogether because it clashes with Burns Suppers.

The council has spent just 30,000 over the last four months on an advertising campaign for the referendum. And it has been accused of failing to ensure that people who have asked to be left off the edited electoral register are allowed to vote in next month’s poll.

Critics today said it was "despicable" for the council to plough more money into a public meeting and "plain lunacy" to spend so much on one event.

Around 500 guests have been invited to the January 25 debate, which will see refreshments including Burns Supper-themed food served up. About 400 tickets for the Question Time-style event are being made available to the public.

Other costs - on top of the venue hire and catering, which the council insists are costing just 10,000 - are thought to include the fee for Ms Riddoch, the costs involved in staffing the event, the audio recording of proceedings, advertising and the distribution of tickets. A document leaked to the Evening News reveals the proposed 34,000 cost of the event.

A spokesman for the council said the real cost of the event was just 10,000 and that an official had made a "genuine mistake" by reporting the other figure in an official document.

City transport leader Andrew Burns will be one of the four panellists - picked by the council - along with Derek Turner, the transport expert behind London’s road toll scheme, John McLellan, editor of the Evening News, and Rob Winter, head of the Princes Street Traders’ Association.

Tory transport spokesman Allan Jackson said: "It’s just plain lunacy to spend this amount on a public meeting. It’s ludicrous that the council is spending more on this than on trying to ensure people are entitled to vote in the referendum."

Lib Dem group leader Jenny Dawe said: "It’s another example of how this council is more interested in promoting its congestion charging scheme than it is in making sure people have a vote in the referendum."

Billed as a debate on "Edinburgh’s Transport" rather than a debate on the merits of the city’s congestion charging plans, among the themes to be discussed are "congestion charging", "what a ‘yes’ vote means" and "what a ‘no’ vote means".

But Tory group leader Councillor Iain Whyte today said the event would turn into a "road toll rally". He added: "Obviously Donald Anderson is keen to organise an Andrew Burns night rather than a Robert Burns night, but it’s going to mean that many people who would otherwise have attended this meeting will not now go because they are at a Burns Supper."

Lib Dem road toll spokesman Fred Mackintosh said: "More than 70 per cent of people in Edinburgh did not vote Labour at the last election and they’re not going to be represented at all. It’s going to be a completely biased meeting."

A spokesman for the council said Burns Night had been chosen because of the availability of the venue and due to a decision to restrict the information the council releases on the referendum from the end of January to avoid accusations of bias.