For a moment reality dawns in council chamber as parking levy is scrapped - John McLellan

Work is to be halted on plans for a workplace parking levy in the Capital

Maybe I’m misremembering, but I recall Labour councillors being every bit as enthusiastic as the SNP about the plan to tax staff who drove to work. But now they are not so keen, with transport convener Scott Arthur saying unions had raised issues about the impact on low-paid employees and shift workers.

Again, perhaps my memory is playing tricks, but I’m pretty sure that’s what Conservative councillors have been arguing all along, just as they pointed out the high likelihood of displaced parking on nearby roads, of which Cllr Arthur has miraculously become aware – “I don't think it’s workable right now,” he told last week’s committee meeting, as if there was ever a time it was.

There was a running theme through the session, of re-thinks and extra reports because scheme after scheme is not going according to plan or the money is running out, be it the George Street car ban or the tram expansion business case, lifting the ban on left turns from Leith Walk into London Road, as well as workplace parking. It was a matter of either jocularity from Cllr Arthur or miserable groaning from the common-sense deniers from the SNP and Greens, but the truth is that problems were repeatedly identified by the Conservative group and each time dismissed simply because of who was saying it.

But reality checks rarely trump ideology on this committee, and there is a determination to press on, driven, if that’s the word, by a belief there is no alternative, when the status quo is a perfectly reasonable position to argue. Despite everything the city is functioning. Cllr Arthur even said himself that George Street was performing better than many other comparable streets, but then insisted something must be done without explanation or justification

Like the original tram project, it seems the reason for carrying on is it has taken so much time that calling a halt would be a waste, even though the budget has swollen to £40 million, and counting. Their answer is not to cut losses, but to find other sources, presumably tapping government-funded organisations, borrowing more or finding things to charge or tax. But one way or another it comes back to the taxpayers.

Green councillor Jule Bandel’s objection to abandoning the workplace parking tax was because it could raise £12m a year, as if Edinburgh workers are not under enough financial pressure. It also conveniently ignored the problem that if it achieved its stated aims it would eventually produce zero revenue.

But given the state of local and national finances, it’s the failure to accept that now is not the time to contemplate spending £3 billion on a tram line to the Royal Infirmary which really takes the breath away, especially as it’s now been made clear that the Scottish Government will not put up the £44m needed to produce a final business case.

Most right-thinking people would have drawn a line at such an eye-watering bill just to produce the argument, but Cllr Arthur is undeterred. The council insisted lessons had been learnt from the first debacle, but when the dog whistle of the climate emergency is sounded, no reality is too stark or cost too high.