GLASGOW could bring in £30million from a city-wide workplace levy on car parking spaces as the local authority continues to explore the option of introducing the scheme.
Councils across Scotland are being given the option of introducing a Workplace Parking Levy which companies would pay and is a bid to encourage less dependency on car usage to as the Scottish Government seeks to reduce traffic by 20 per cent by 2030.
Glasgow City Council is one of the authorities considering it and a report to members of the environment, sustainability and carbon reduction policy committee, revealed how the city could benefit financially.
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As part of the development of the Glasgow Transport Strategy, bus regulation and the costs associated with it were also highlighted along with the benefits to other cities of an integrated ticketing system.
However, before the workplace parking plan can progress the report said a more up to date assessment of eligible parking spaces in the city centre and the city generally is required, particularly in relation to post-Covid19 impacts on travel.
Deborah Paton, connectivity officer, delivered the report, and said working place parking levy could be an important revenue generator for sustainable transport projects and it is viewed that it could be broadly feasible for the city.
Ms Paton said: “WPL could act as a demand management tool to influence modal shift to more sustainable ways of travel as well as generating revenue to invest solely in sustainable transport interventions in the Glasgow Transport Strategy.”
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The report added that WPL and other revenue-generating initiatives such as Road User Charging would offer a stable and secure local funding stream that could underpin, supplement and lever more competitive funding sources, and be used to underwrite additional borrowings.
Potential revenues surpluses may range from around £2.5million to £6m per annum for a city centre scheme to around £20 to £30m per annum to city-wide scheme. The report added the implementation and delivery costs are relatively low but the scheme would take at least three years to set up and £1m to 1.6m to develop.
A workplace levy scheme already in operation in Nottingham with a charge of £428 a year per space.
As part of the Glasgow Transport Strategy development future bus governance was also looked at. The report found cities with a single integrated multi ticket systems with one body setting fares perform better in terms of almost all public transport parametres.
The report also found the city to be significantly lower for bus usage when compared to best performing cities.
In terms of average bus speeds, Glasgow did poorly against most comparator cities.
The report added that as a consistent pattern, cities with a predominantly monopoly market or single operator transport network delivery model, in almost all instances out-performed other cities in transport use numbers.
It was noted that the pandemic has had a significant impact on bus operations in Glasgow and the wider Strathclyde area, with reduced patronage and farebox revenue, whilst grappling with general traffic levels that are returning to pre-pandemic levels.
Research partnership working could be a way to less the gap including Bus Service Improvement Partnerships, Bus Franchising and municipal ownership.
However, the report suggests a £300m capital investment fund, an additional £22.7m per annum of revenue funding and retention of £21m of National Concessionary Travel Scheme reimbursement would be required to create conditions in which the region can achieve a world class bus network.
Bus franchising would cost up to £15m to build a business case and at least seven years to implement and pose significant new risks to local transport authorities. Acquiring bus operators in the region to run municipally-owned bus services could cost around £200m.
Councillor Jill Brown raised the issue of integrated transport and asked if the council was really challenging themselves.
She said: “We seem to be taking a small shuffle forward rather than a big step forward given that we know we are behind the curve on bus travel, our travel length is taking longer and our bus use is lower than in other cities. We need to get ahead to actually offer an integrated travel system that Glasgow deserves.”
Convener Councillor Angus Millar said the report was very ambitious and it was a firm foundation to build on.
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