New road toll may cost Labour dear

CONGESTION charging is set to dominate next year’s elections to the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh. It has already been earmarked as a major campaign issue by both the SNP and the Tories and both parties expect to garner significant numbers of votes as a result.

Edinburgh’s decision to push ahead with city-centre tolls will almost certainly backfire on Labour, in the capital and in the crucial outlying areas as well.

The Labour-led city council is likely to submit draft plans for approval by early autumn. They are almost certain to be approved by the executive by the end of the year - four months before every council seat and every Scottish parliament seat is up for re-election. Andrew Burns, the Labour councillor in charge of the scheme, admits the move is politically sensitive but insists that that should not, and will not, stand in the council’s way. "There are political risks," he says, "but this is a vital step that needs to be taken."

Some of Burns’s colleagues in Fife, Midlothian and East Lothian no doubt share that assessment, aware that they are having to share the risks without any of the potential benefits.

At least Burns and his fellow councillors can argue that congestion charging will benefit the voters of Edinburgh - bringing safer streets, less pollution, fewer traffic jams and shorter journey times. For those in the outlying areas, however, the benefits are not so clear.

The people of Fife, East Lothian, Midlothian and across the Central Belt to Glasgow who commute to Edinburgh will end up paying the bulk of the charges but without receiving the benefits. It is a backlash from these people that Labour fears most.

Many Labour politicians have a rising sense of unease at the opposition which has already surfaced against city-centre tolls. The SNP has started a leaflet campaign - they handed out more than 4,000 in Fife, and the nationalists will make city-centre charging a key issue. Kenny MacAskill, their transport spokesman, says: "This is a cack-handed proposal. The public transport infrastructure is not in place to offer an alternative and it will undermine the city centre."

Opposition to congestion charging was a key part of the Tory platform for last year’s general election, and they will take an even stronger line next year. "This is nothing to do with congestion, it’s just about raising revenue," says a spokesman.

Ministers have come under an increasing amount of pressure privately from Labour councillors anxious to put off the introduction of congestion charging in Edinburgh to a later date - or at least until after next year’s elections. But the timetable has been agreed.