To council car ownership is just a nasty habit

Parking on Bangholm Avenue before the ban

It is not the fault of Bangholm people that their streets are so narrow they have had to park on the pavements to allow vehicles to get through, but they seem to have managed for many years.

That was until the new laws to ban pavement parking came in, and all of a sudden, such narrow streets became instant revenue generators for a council whose thirst for parking fine income has proved unquenchable.

I can hear the responses now; it’s just tough luck if you live on a road that’s too narrow to park, wheeling is a priority, you’ll just need to park somewhere else, no-one has the right to park outside their own home. The law’s the law.

Except the law isn’t just the law. The issue is not draconian legislation, but Edinburgh City Council’s dogmatic approach, a predictably hardline attitude which ignores an exemption for exceptional circumstances included in the new rules, and for which only the Conservative group argued.

Unfortunately for Bangholm folk, in the world according to Edinburgh transport officials, all exemptions are void if there is a bus service anywhere in the vicinity, even though people obviously use their cars for trips to places not on the bus routes.

The legislation was designed to be flexible, but the council is still wedded to the all stick and no carrot approach to car ownership, just a nasty habit like smoking that can only be broken by hitting people in the pocket and making it as difficult as possible to indulge.

Sue Webber is a Scottish Conservative MSP for Lothian