NEWS RELEASE - June 6th 2000

Transport Bill welcomed - but Bill needs to be toughened to tackle transport problems

Colin Howden, Campaign Manager of TRANSform Scotland, said:
"The proposals for urban road user charging are very welcome. In Edinburgh - if not in the rest of the country - there is now an acceptance that there is too much air pollution, too many road accidents and too many cars on the road. Edinburgh Council has done well to present the potential benefits of road charging and they have proved popular with the public."

"Just in the last few days, the South East Scotland Transport Partnership (SESTRAN) have spelled out how £500 million raised from road user charges over a 10 year period could buy a light rail system, a rail link to the Borders, traffic-calmed streets and all the other transport improvements people routinely call for. Unless Gordon Brown is prepared to open the Treasury's wallet, this is the only way these improvements will be delivered."

The proposals for a workplace parking levy are also welcome and would make employers think more critically about how their staff commute to work. But TRANSform Scotland expressed disappointment that the Bill proposals do not provide for all private non-residential parking to be included in local parking levy schemes.

Colin Howden, Campaign Manager of TRANSform, said:
"It is disappointing that the proposals do nothing to control the spread of car-dependent retail and leisure developments. While planning guidelines now discourage out-of-town developments (2), we are not persuaded that voluntary agreements between local authorities and retail/leisure facilities will tackle this problem adequately. The Scottish Executive has failed to present any convincing arguments presented why out-of-town retail developments should be excluded from the parking levy." (3)

The Transport Bill could make provision for parking levies for these sites but their omission continues the suspicion, articulated by many over the past two years, that the exclusion from the levy results from the lobby power of the supermarket industry. (4)

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

(1) TRANSform Scotland is the national sustainable transport campaign, bringing together 67 organisations - including transport operators, local authorities, national environment and conservation groups, chambers of commerce and local transport groups - interested in transport, the environment and a sustainable Scotland. We can be contacted at 72 Newhaven Road, Edinburgh, EH6 5QG. Tel.: 0131-467-7714; Fax: 0131-554-8656; E-mail: campaigns@transformscotland.org.uk; web: http://www.transformscotland.org.uk

(2) That is, NPPG8 (retail) & NPPG17 (transport).

(3) The Scottish Liberal Democrats have today questioned the absence of the proposals. See S1W-7628, submitted on 05/06/00 by SLD transport spokesperson Tavish Scott MSP:
"To ask the Scottish Executive what research or evidence it used to rule out a levy on non-workplace customer parking provided at large out-of-town retail developments on page eight of Tackling Congestion and whether further research is being undertaken in this area of transport policy."

(4) We would note the view of the House of Commons Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Committee which, in its April 1999 report on the UK Transport White Paper, concluded that:
"Road user charging should be designed, where possible, to include out-of-town and edge-of-town retail and leisure facilities and other major generators of traffic." [recommendation nnn, para. 258] and:
"Local authorities should be allowed to introduce customer parking charges, where they think it is appropriate. We recommend that schemes for customer parking charges be included in the pilot projects that have already been proposed to evaluate road user and workplace parking charges or are the subject of separate trials" [recommendation ooo, para. 259].

In its recent report 'Environmental Impact of Supermarket Competition', the same Committee concluded that "the large amount of free parking offered by out-of-town developments gives them a massive advantage over town-centre retailers, as well as generating extra traffic" (as quoted in Local Transport Today, 20/01/00). The Committee asked the UK Government to tackle the issue "as a matter of urgency."

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