Witchery owner: Tolls are price worth paying

James Thomson, who has won a string of industry plaudits, said the city council was right to take action to tackle an already congested city centre.

He warned the heart of the Capital could become a "ghost town" without congestion charging and said promised public transport improvements would make a huge difference to business.

The creator of both the Witchery by the Castle on Castlehill and the Tower, the rooftop restaurant at the Museum of Scotland, is one of the most high-profile public figures in the city to back the 2-a-day scheme.

Mr Thomson, who also owns the Prestonfield House Hotel, has joined a small but growing band of business figures supporting congestion charging in Edinburgh.

They include the Kwik-Fit founder Sir Tom Farmer, Edinburgh Airport’s managing director Richard Jeffrey, Forth Ports chief executive Charles Hammond and Jim MacFarlane, chief executive of Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothian.

Mr Thomson, who was awarded the Silver Thistle, the highest award in Scottish tourism earlier this year, said: "I was a bit wary of congestion charging previously, especially because of the impact it could have on someone who has to drive into the city for work.

"However you also have to look at the way traffic and congestion is predicted to grow in Edinburgh city centre, which is already too congested in my view.

"Everybody seems to be becoming more and more reliant on cars and the city can’t cope, particularly during the rush-hour at the busiest points during the day.

"If nothing is done about congestion, what we’ll see is businesses losing out more and more to those outwith the city centre, and we could end up with a ghost town if people simply can’t get around because of the traffic.

"It may potentially cost some people 500 a year extra in theory, but you have to remember congestion charging will deliver a better public transport system.

"It’s costing people 10 a day to park in the city centre at the moment and you pay crazy prices to use parking meters. In other European cities where they have good public transport systems, the shops are booming.

"In the long term, businesses stand to benefit a lot more than they will miss out."

Simon Williams, chief executive of the Edinburgh Principal Hotels Association, which represents 50 of the city’s top hotels, also threw his weight behind the council’s plans.

He said: "Nobody wants to pay anything more to travel but the way traffic is predicted to grow in Edinburgh there is no doubt it has to be brought under control.

"We need people to use buses a lot more and reducing the amount of traffic will create a much better environment for walking around in.

"I don’t see it adversely affecting hotels in the city centre as people will still be able to use their car parks and use public transport to travel around.

"We need to get a message across that Edinburgh is a good city to get around and that the public transport is good, rather than the notion that the city is anti-car."