Britain's transport strategy depends on Edinburgh 'yes' vote on road tolls
ALASTAIR DALTON
TRANSPORT CORRESPONDENT
Key points
• No vote to road tolls would kill congestion charges in UK says London mayor
• Mr Livingstone warns Edinburgh residents against referendum 'scare stories'
• Livingstone claims impact of congestion charges in London hugely beneficial
Key quote
"If Edinburgh votes against congestion charging, it will kill off the prospects of the government introducing national road pricing. Ministers will be far too nervous to proceed"- Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London
Story in full A NO vote in Edinburgh’s road tolls referendum would blow a hole through the government’s transport strategy, stopping similar schemes in their tracks, the London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, warned yesterday.
Mr Livingstone said the government would have to shelve its plans for national road pricing, while other cities would scrap their own congestion charging schemes if the Scottish capital rejected the £2 toll next month.
Speaking after attending a major conference on road tolls, the mayor said the referendum was politically risky because the poll could be hijacked by other causes.
Mr Livingstone told The Scotsman Edinburgh was the prime candidate for following London’s lead. He said both Edinburgh and London were booming cities and had significantly improved their public transport.
Mr Livingstone said: "Edinburgh is like London in being a city reborn. People are coming from all over the world, they are attracting global headquarters and are great places to live."
But he warned: "The government has seen what has happened with congestion charging in London. But if in another city, the population votes against it, there is very little chance of getting it carried forward."
Alistair Darling, the Transport Secretary and an Edinburgh MP, has previously said a satellite-based system that charged drivers according to where, when and how far they travelled could be introduced in ten years’ time.
But Mr Livingstone warned: "If Edinburgh votes against congestion charging, it will kill off the prospects of the government introducing national road pricing. Ministers will be far too nervous to proceed."
A ‘yes’ vote is far from guaranteed. Opposition parties and retailers, while supporting charging in principle, re-affirmed their opposition to Edinburgh’s plans at yesterday’s conference, while the scheme was backed by enterprise and public transport groups.
Fred Mackintosh, a spokesman on congestion charging for the city council’s Liberal Democrat group, said the scheme was premature and seriously flawed, and should await major public transport improvements such as the introduction of trams in 2009.
If Edinburgh votes against congestion charging, it will kill off the prospects of the government introducing national road pricing
- Ken Livingstone
David McLetchie, the Scottish Conservative leader, regretted that other local authorities were not following West Lothian Council’s lead in staging their own referenda.
He said: "It is imperative that all residents of Edinburgh use the referendum to kill off the scheme. They are more intelligent than to vote for something that is so manifestly against their interests."
Paul Burden, the director of communications for the John Lewis Partnership, which has led retailers’ opposition to charging, said shoppers would go elsewhere, with firms following suit and empty shops remaining unused for longer.
However, Jim McFarlane, the chief executive of Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothian, argued that charging was progressive taxation that would ensure continued investment in the city.
He said: "We have got to face up to the issue of congestion charging - what’s wrong with the principle of treating roads as commodities, with people paying according to usage?"
David Spaven, the chairman of TRANSform Scotland, said congestion could not be tackled with public transport improvements alone, and retailers lacked vision, having opposed pedestrianisation in the past.
Mr Livingstone warned the city: "Don’t wait until you are on the edge of gridlock because it can snarl up really quickly."
He said if the city rejected charging, "people will continue to choke and cough, have accidents and be late for work".
The mayor predicted more cities across the world would bring in charging, but Edinburgh was "absolutely critical" for its future success in Britain. "The system is quite simple to put in. I just hope that the people of Edinburgh will have confidence for the future."
Mr Livingstone told Edinburgh residents to beware of those spreading scare stories that charging would devastate the city centre, leaving it a retail desert. He said: "People think they can scare their way to electoral victory rather than lift people up to what’s possible."
It is imperative that all residents of Edinburgh use the referendum to kill off the scheme
- David McLetchie
The mayor told the conference at the Carlton Hotel that he would not have held a referendum to gain support for a charging scheme, and would rely on his electoral mandate.
He said: "I am not in favour of them. There is always a danger of referenda being hijacked by other issues." He said that despite 40 years of support for devolution in the north-east of England, last year’s referendum - which rejected a regional assembly - had become a popularity poll for Tony Blair, the Prime Minister.
However, the mayor admitted he had much more personal power than local authorities, so it was easier to push through policies, such as charging.
Mr Livingstone said while some business groups opposed the London charging scheme, there had not been a single report which showed businesses had suffered.
He claimed the overall impact had been hugely beneficial, with delivery firms able to cut their vehicle fleets because they were able to get around faster, and businesses able to complete more orders per day.
Mr Livingstone told the conference, organised by the Edinburgh firm MacKay Hannah: "In 33 years in public life, this is the only thing that I ever did that turned out better than I thought it would."
The mayor said the only mistakes had been teething troubles with the call centre taking payments from drivers, and siting it in Coventry, where staff did not have knowledge of London.
Mr Livingstone said he planned a trial of new charge-collecting technology which could be used nationally. The "tag and beacon" equipment works by roadside beacons detecting electronic tags fitted to cars and automatically deducting charge payments from drivers’ bank accounts.
This could eventually replace the current camera system - which would also be used in Edinburgh - which photographs vehicle number plates and checks them against records of drivers who have paid the charge.
However, TIE, the Edinburgh City Council firm spearheading its charging plans, said the new system may not be used because it had had low take-up rates where it was already in use, such as at the Dartford tunnel under the Thames in Kent.
Andrew Burns, the Labour-controlled council’s executive member for transport, admitted its plans were not "absolute right or wrong" but he said they represented "a choice of two futures for Edinburgh".
He said the council would fail European pollution targets in 2010 without cutting traffic.
Mr Burns said the referendum was to ensure it met Scottish Executive requirements.
He said: "The Executive requires us to prove clear public support for the scheme, which is what we are doing.
"The legal structures governing the post of London mayor are also vastly different from those in Scotland."
How the entry permit system would work
MOTORISTS would be charged £2 on weekdays for driving into Edinburgh across either of two cordons, according to the city council’s congestion charging rules.
Tolls would be levied just once a day and for driving inbound only, from mid-2006.
The inner cordon, around the Old and New Towns, would operate from 7am to 6:30pm, with the outer cordon, inside the city bypass, in operation from 7-10am.
The "entry permit" system differs from the London scheme, where drivers are charged £5 a day for driving in the city-centre charging zone regardless of whether they cross the single cordon.
Exemptions to the Edinburgh scheme include motor cycles, taxis, buses and coaches, blue badge holders, emergency vehicles and breakdown trucks.
However, the most contentious exempt group are residents of rural west Edinburgh - outside the bypass - who would not have to pay charges at the outer cordon.
The city council has said it wants to treat all residents equally.
However, council officials and outside experts have repeatedly warned the move would be unfair on commuters from neighbouring council areas.
ALASTAIR DALTON
So since Ken is telling us that it's been a great success in the big smoke, tell me greenbadge (and any other london cabbies) has it, or is it all just propaganda and politics, the thing is the proposed plan in Auld Reekie is for the whole City not just an inner cordon, I read some conflicting reports about it here
http://www.cfit.gov.uk/research/cc/specific/03.htm it mentions a drop in hackney fares, is this true?
I notice Ken mentioned when he came to visit that he "always had a difficulty with staging referendums" no wonder, it's like asking Turkeys to vote for Christmas.
If you base the proposed charge on someone driving into (or indeed around) the City five days a week to their work for 47 weeks of the year thats £470 a year extra you will have to pay for the privilege of living in, well your own City
Of course this charging must have a disproportionate effect on the poorer citizens of a City where it's introduced.
I wonder if taking £500 quid a year out of the pockets and purses from workers and citizens in Edinburgh who wish to drive their car wont cause damage to the local economy in other sectors.
Login
Register
FAQ
