Retailers vow to up the ante in tolls fight

City council chiefs are facing the prospect of high-profile campaigning against their plans in the run-up to February’s referendum if they fail to address key concerns raised in the report, which it commissioned.

Retails giants John Lewis, the Princes Street Traders Association and the Federation of Small Businesses today piled fresh pressure on the council by restating their opposition.

Consultants called in by the City Centre Management Company, which was set up by the council to examine the impact of congestion charging, have warned that it may take the sector three years from the introduction of the scheme to fully recover from its impact.

The council was today told that the congestion charging scheme would damage retailers "large and small" and that it made no sense to press ahead with the scheme until the first trams were expected to be running in the city in 2009.

David Barford, general manager of John Lewis in Edinburgh, said: "This report clearly justifies retailers’ concerns. We will continue to oppose the congestion charging proposals as they currently stand.

"We’re being asked to accept congestion charging without the full transport infrastructure being in place for three years and no proper car park expansion plan in place. We believe that the findings of the impact assessment, while worrying enough, actually understate the damage the congestion charge scheme will inflict on the retail sector."

Rob Winter, head of the Princes Street Traders Association, said: "Research has shown that Edinburgh’s retail sector loses around 160m a year to the likes of Glasgow. This report is talking about another 40m being lost on top of that.

"Congestion charging has united retailers across the city against the council’s proposals. If they’re going to go ahead with this then they have to improve access to the city centre and that means new parking facilities."

Consultants DTZ Pieda, which based its findings on congestion charging being introduced tomorrow and without any further public transport improvements being in place, said up to 380 jobs could be lost if a predicted four per cent slump in retail expenditure emerges.

The company has told the council to tackle the provision of extra parking facilities and cheaper parking in existing facilities as ways of combating the predicted impact of the tolls.

The only major new car park on the agenda, to be built below George Street, is unlikely to be open before 2010. City transport leader Andrew Burns said the cost of parking in the city centre could be reduced under a major new parking review being carried out by the authority, but was unable to make any guarantees that this would actually happen.

City leaders are pinning their hopes of winning the referendum on persuading people that the 160m package of transport improvements that are due to be in place by mid-2006 will provide enough genuine alternatives to the private car.

These include four new park-and-ride sites serving the city and a huge extension of the city’s bus network, as well as the guided busway in west Edinburgh, which is due to open this week.

However, retailers say the council needs to put more on the table than it has done to date in order to win their support.

Tim Steward, chair of the Edinburgh branch of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: "The impact of congestion charging will be to drive retailers out of the city centre cordon, which will have a major impact on the likes of Princes Street, the Grassmarket and Royal Mile."