Congestion charge will come 'through front door', says council chief - readers' letters

As an avid reader of Steve Cardownie’s column I was a wee bit disappointed to see I had not made myself clear on my thinking regarding a possible congestion charge for Edinburgh.

As Edinburgh’s new Transport and Environment Convener, I am faced with a situation where Edinburgh is growing at an incredible rate and is the most congested city in the UK. More car use won’t solve this problem, particularly when we are faced with a climate emergency.

The opposition parties in Edinburgh think a Workplace Parking Levy is the solution, but myself and my friends in the trade union movement have doubts.

If the opposition parties progress with this, however, I have a duty to make it work for our Capital.

Rush hour traffic on the M8 heading into Edinburgh

I am looking at a range of measures inside the city to encourage people to switch to sustainable transport modes, and to ensure new developments have first-class public transport links.

I must, however, also consider the traffic coming from outside Edinburgh.

My focus right now is increasing public transport capacity from surrounding local authorities. This is about making it safer, faster and more reliable.

By 2025 I hope to have the public transport capacity in place to make a real dent in Edinburgh’s congestion problem.

If people from outside the City of Edinburgh Council area prove reluctant to switch to public transport then a congestion charge may help encourage them.

Steve Cardownie called this “congestion charging by the back door”, but I am planning on knocking loudly on the front door of drivers to ask them to make the switch to sustainable transport.

The congestion charge will be payable as car drivers from surrounding local authorities enter Edinburgh, but there may well be a higher rate for entering the city centre.

For all this to work, Scotland needs a joined-up public transport strategy which focuses on keeping bus, tram and rail fares affordable and the services reliable. Let’s hope that we see progress on this by 2025.

Cllr Scott Arthur, City Chambers, Edinburgh

Not to be trusted

The City of Edinburgh Council has published a report indicating it could introduce a Workplace Parking Levy (WPL), a “poll tax on wheels”, with workers forced to pay between £450 and £650 per year.

It will be remembered that after the May elections, Labour changed sides and with the Liberal Democrats seized control and quickly confirmed there was no prospect of a WPL being introduced. Even better, a Labour source confirmed that no Labour local authority had any inclination to impose WPL. No wonder politicians cannot be trusted and are hated.

If the WPL goes ahead then the free parking that public sector workers enjoy should also be subject to a WPL.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Let Filmhouse fail

I feel the campaign to save the Filmhouse is misguided. There are two other cinemas, the Cameo and the Odeon, within a few hundred yards of the Filmhouse as well as several other multiplex cinemas in Edinburgh.

Since retiring I can attend the cinema in the late morning or afternoon and can find myself in an auditorium for several hundred people with an audience of ten or so.

Perhaps it would be better to allow the Filmhouse to fail as it is not financially viable and utilise the vast overprovision of cinema seats in Edinburgh. This might help to ensure the financial viability of the rest of the cinemas in Edinburgh in the longer term.

Gordon Scott, Edinburgh

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