HEAVY traffic is clogging up Scotland’s cities, harming the economy and people’s health – but proposals to eventually bring in congestion charges in Glasgow and Edinburgh are already jammed in controversy.
Yet if Edinburgh had gone ahead with a plan to introduce such charges 20 years ago, it’s possible the city’s notorious tram project debacle might never have happened, according to Green MSP Mark Ruskell.
Meanwhile in Glasgow, bus services are being axed because they can’t stick to agreed timetables as a result of the congestion.
Despite this, and despite London having successfully operated a congestion charge on private vehicles entering the city centre since 2003 – which immediately led to a 15% reduction in traffic and was able to support a freeze on bus fares – opposition to such charges remains strong in Scotland.
Last week Labour councillors in Glasgow fumed over the proposal, claiming the SNP council leaders should invest more in public transport rather than waste time looking into a congestion charge.
The SNP group retaliated that Labour would be better off demanding their Westminster bosses award the city the same transport packages made available to English city regions.
In Edinburgh, councillors appear less inclined to put the brakes on a congestion charge, even though its previous referendum on the subject was rejected by 74% of voters.
In May, the city’s Transport and Environment Committee agreed to begin exploring the idea with Glasgow and other councils.
Ruskell (below) said it was a “tragedy” that one had not been introduced sooner.
“There’s plenty of evidence that reducing the volume of traffic is good for the economy, good for the planet and good for human health. It creates cities that are nicer places to be, where people want to spend more time and money.”
He said congestion charges not only cut the amount of private vehicles entering city centres but also create a flow of investment that can be used to improve public transport.
“It’s a real tragedy that the City of Edinburgh Council did not just push ahead with the plan before, because if they had, we would have had millions of pounds being invested in public transport,” said Ruskell.
“I suspect that the whole debacle around the tram project would possibly have not happened if the charge had been in place, as it was going to fund the third line. That didn’t happen, so the whole project lost the economies of scale and the benefits of a much bigger project.”
However, he warned that for any congestion charge to work well, there had to be an effective public transport system already in place, as there was in London.
“To make it fair, you can’t introduce the charge without a top-notch public transport system to back it up,” he said. “That needs to be in place on day one so that nobody feels they have to drive and pay the charge because there is no alternative.
“I think that is probably more of an issue for Glasgow than Edinburgh, where there already is a good public transport system.
“Any congestion charge needs investment up front and we are interested in how we can use different forms of financing like green bonds to bring in public ownership of buses and make bigger investments in public transport. There’s a huge level of investment needed, and nobody has quite got a handle on what that looks like yet.”
Ruskell said there also had to be consideration of people providing essential services within the charge boundaries, such as carers.
He also pointed out that people would be more willing to accept a congestion charge if the money created was invested in making public transport cheaper or even free, as some European cities have done.
“Public transport services have to be good and congestion is part of the reason why they are not, but if you can break that deadlock and create free public transport for everyone, I think that would change the debate,” he said.
“If councils could come up with some sort of compelling options which could be in place early, I think they would have people onside.”
Environmental campaign group Stop Climate Chaos Scotland (SCCS) said drastic action was necessary to cut transport emissions to reach carbon reduction targets by 2045.
“It’s about health and it’s about priorities and for too long we have prioritised car use at the expense of every other form of transport, despite knowing the health risks and accepting the death and injury rates.
“We want ministers to commit at least 10% of the transport budget to active travel, delivering long-term investment to transform our streets and communities.”
Breathing dirty air is blamed for as many as 2700 Scots deaths every year and has been named by the World Health Organisation as the second-biggest killer globally, with more than eight million fatalities annually.
“Air pollution from cars and lorries is already causing significant health problems, affecting the lungs, heart, brain, eyes and skin, and is a major cause of early deaths and a contributing factor in the increase in asthma,” said Robinson.
“Cleaning up our air will massively benefit public health and reduce congestion, directly saving lives and helping to tackle climate change at the same time.”
Before any congestion charges can go ahead, existing legislation may need to be updated.
The Scottish Government is currently setting up a working group that will include membership from regional transport partnerships and local authorities. This will review existing discretionary powers for local road user charging schemes under the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001, which was brought into statute by a previous Parliament.
“Given the passage of time since existing regulations were brought into statute, it is right to ensure they remain fit for purpose,” said a Transport Scotland spokesperson.
“This ensures that local authorities have all the powers they need to respond to local transport challenges.”
A Glasgow City Council spokesperson said: “We remain committed to exploring opportunities to tackle congestion and raise revenues that could be invested in improving Glasgow’s road network and public transport infrastructure.
“While it is clear that the exploration of any congestion charging scheme would likely take several years and would require detailed feasibility work to be progressed, the council will engage closely with the required national regulatory review as part of our ongoing work in this area.”
