LABOUR has ruled out bringing in the so-called car park tax in any council they control after next month’s election.
They've also called for the SNP to give "a cast-iron commitment that none of their councils will plough ahead with these reckless plans."
The Workplace Parking Levy would see employers forced to pay an annual sum to the council for every parking space they provide for employees.]
It is designed to reduce the number of car journeys, however, there are concerns over the costs as there is no cap on how much local authorities can charge individual businesses.
Labour has been critical of the charge, despite it being introduced by Labour in England and Wales, implemented by a Labour-controlled council in Nottingham, and proposed in Labour's 2017 council manifestos for Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The levy was also first floated in Holyrood by Scottish Labour MSP Sarah Boyack when she was Transport Minister in Donald Dewar's administration.
Neil Bibby, Scottish Labour’s transport spokesperson, said: “Workers across Scotland are struggling to make ends meet and now the SNP want to pour fuel on the fire by making workers cough up hundreds of pounds for the privilege of going to work.
“The SNP leadership must disavow the pledges made in Edinburgh and Glasgow and give a cast-iron commitment that none of their councils will plough ahead with these reckless plans.
“If they fail to rule this out it would be a gross betrayal of the worst off and a dereliction of duty during a cost-of-living crisis.
“This scheme is a pathetic attempt to pass the buck for tackling the climate emergency on to workers, after years of failure from the SNP.
“It is jaw-dropping hypocrisy to make low-paid workers pick up the tab while they run Scotland’s green public transport into the ground.
“No Scottish Labour councils will implement this damaging scheme – instead, we will fight for capped bus fares, cheaper rail fares and a joined-up public transport system that gets you where you need to go.”
An SNP spokesperson said: "This is nothing but sheer hypocrisy from Labour as they called for a Workplace Parking Levy for Glasgow and Edinburgh in their 2017 local election manifesto, more opposition for opposition's sake.
"Labour already implements a Workplace Parking Levy in Nottingham, a policy that has been in place for ten years.
"Councils across Scotland are set to have a double challenge of tackling the cost of living crisis and working towards making their towns and cities net zero.
"The Workplace Parking Levy will be at the discretion of councils to use, but it will raise vital funds and encourage more people to take the train, bus, walk or cycle to work. Reducing car use in our town and city centres will make them greener and encourage a healthier lifestyle."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel