Tolls scheme 'is vague and unjustified'

Chief shouldn’t ‘play Sim City’ with Capital

‘Little regard for local communities’

EDINBURGH’S controversial road tolls scheme is unjustified, confusing and vague, the last day of a major inquiry into the proposals heard.

Councillor Andrew Burns, the city’s transport leader, was warned he had to take great care over such a major proposal, with his opposite number reminding him he was "not playing [computer game] Sim City" with Edinburgh.

Giving evidence yesterday at the end of the ten-week public inquiry into the scheme, Councillor Fred Mackintosh, acting transport spokesman for the Scottish Lib Dem group, said the council could not assume that because something had to be done about congestion, a charge should be brought in.

He slated the council’s proposals, saying they had little regard for local communities, and slammed their plans to improve public transport after the tolls were in place

"This council, with a record of failure to deliver major transport projects that dates back to the late 1980s, wants to launch our city into a 20-year experiment where complicated congestion charging cordons are dropped on to our Victorian street plan with little regard for communities affected by the increased traffic, in order to divert traffic from the city centre and pay for the vague set of public transport improvements with the proven likelihood that economic activity will move out of the city," he said.

"London had a dramatically better transport system than ours before its charges started and yet the council plans to roll out improvements here years after the scheme starts.

"The whole scheme is justified by the totally unsupported assertion that the Scottish Executive will, after 2006, dramatically cut transport investment levels in Scotland’s capital city.

"Cllr Burns needs to be reminded that he is not playing Sim City here."

Cllr Mackintosh said he disagreed with the council’s proposals, but added that any consideration of the tolls had to wait until after public transport in the city had been improved.

"Implementation of the scheme before the provision of public transport alternatives will result in a traffic diversion and movement of economic activity to places unaffected by the cordons," he said.

"Public transport improvements must come before tolls, and in particular the tram lines must be operational before Edinburgh considers road tolls."

Mr Mackintosh also asked whether the rationale behind the scheme, whereby it would reduce congestion and provide funding for public transport improvements, was correct.

He said it was clear "considerable sums" could be raised by the council from parking charges.

This, he said, undermined its argument that the congestion charging scheme was the only credible way to fund improvements.

"The council have grossly under- estimated the amount of public funding that will be available for investment in public transport in the years beyond 2006 and are blind to the possibility of generating significant improvements in the public transport system without revenue from congestion charging," he said.

"They have also failed to quantify the risk that the scheme will not generate the revenue needed for the additional investment package or what effect a reduced investment package would have on the economic life of the city."

Under the plans being put forward by the council, the Edinburgh road tolls scheme will operate Monday to Friday, but not on bank holidays.

There will be two charging cordons, one around the city centre and another just inside the city bypass.

The inner cordon will operate from 7am to 6.30pm, while the outer one will run from 7am to 10am. There would be one 2 charge per day for crossing the cordons.

The reporters handling the inquiry are expected to deliver their verdict in October.