Road tolls: It's going to be no

A poll conducted by Scottish Opinion, on behalf of the Evening News, has found that 65 per cent of city voters plan to reject the 2 charge.

The survey reveals there is a widespread consensus that Edinburgh does suffer from congestion problems, even if the majority of the 538 residents polled remain unconvinced by the council’s proposed solution.

And the results also suggest the council would fare better if a single cordon had been proposed for the city centre, without the outer cordon. Opposition to the tolls scheme would then fall to 34 per cent.

Voting in the referendum is due to begin on Monday, and council leaders have argued that the tolls

are the only way to curb rising congestion - predicted to increase by 50 per cent in the next two decades - and to raise sufficient funds for public transport.

Responding to the poll results, the council’s transport leader, Andrew Burns, today insisted that he was confident of a "yes" vote in the referendum, but opposition councillors said it proved they had come up with the wrong scheme.

Tory transport spokesman Allan Jackson said: "This comes as no surprise to me at all. People do not want this and they know it is a bad scheme.

"They also know that the council has spent about 8 million on this so far and by the looks of things it is going to be a wasted 8m."

Liberal Democrat transport spokes-man Fred Mackintosh said: "It seems that Edinburgh voters agree with us that there is a problem but this is the wrong way to solve it.

"But I hope everyone votes because it is important we remember that the real poll is the postal ballot."

Tina Woolnough, who is campaigning for a "no" vote as part of Edinburgh Communities Against Congestion Charging, said: "It’s absolutely clear that people think this is the wrong scheme.

"People are obviously concerned about growing car use but we certainly think there are lots of different strategies that can be used which are not a sledgehammer to crack a nut."

Tim Steward, chairman of the Edinburgh branch of the Federation of Small Businesses, said today’s results backed a survey his organisation had recently carried out. He said: "We polled 4000 small businesses in the East of Scotland. We had 15 per cent return and 70 per cent of them said they would vote against road tolls.

"Edinburgh City Council has not recognised the mood of the people - who want many more improvements to public transport before drivers are penalised with the 2 congestion charge.

"I think they [the city’s Labour administration] have made themselves look like they haven’t thought this scheme through."

The poll suggests there will be a high turnout with 69 per cent intending to vote, and another 15 per cent indicating that they would "possibly" vote.

Professor David Begg, chairman of the Commission for Integrated Transport and one of the Government’s leading transport advisers, said today: "It is encouraging that such a high percentage of people want to come out and vote. It highlights that people who want to see a better transport system for the city had better get out and vote ‘yes’."

The results also revealed that significantly more drivers intend to vote than non-drivers - 75 per cent compared with 57 per cent. But more drivers intend to vote "yes" - 21 per cent compared to 17 per cent of non-drivers.

Prof Begg said this showed the "yes" campaign had failed to communicate the benefits of the scheme to bus passengers, pedestrians and cyclists.

He added that it was unfortunate that people were not able to vote on the tolls after the scheme had been introduced, as will be the case in Stockholm next year. He said: "It would make sense to have it in for a year as they are doing in Stockholm because people would be able to vote in a more informed way."

Today, city transport leader Andrew Burns said the results of the poll were consistent with the experience of other European countries before congestion charging was introduced.

He added: "These results clearly indicate that the vast majority of people acknowledge that Edinburgh has a congestion problem, but this opinion poll is a relatively small sample - only just over 500 - with a significant margin of error.

"The only poll that really counts is the postal one beginning on Monday and I am entirely confident that will return a ‘yes’ vote from the residents."

Voting in the two-week postal ballot begins on Monday and the result is expected to be announced on February 22.