Been chatting with a few wonderful cycling folk on Bluesky about this post by Councillor Jenkinson about an EEN article on a possible Edinburgh congestion charge:
Rotten headline. What I am actually doing is starting a conversation with Glasgow and our surrounding local authorities to see what the appetite for road user charging is in Scotland’s central belt. We have no powers to implement any scheme at this time.Obviously, CCE a far better place to post on a complicated issue that needs a bit of space to discuss.
I think the Councillor has been badly advised, as the Council does appear to have the power to introduce a congestion charge. Exactly the same powers it would have used in 2005, which are set out in part 3 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001 and the following regulations:
Road User Charging (Liability for Charges) (Scotland) Regulations 2005
Road User Charging (Consultation and Publication) (Scotland) Regulations 2003
Road User Charging (Penalty Charges) (Scotland) Regulations 2005.
The Scottish Government also published a guidance note on implementing road user charging schemes called "Delivering Integrated Transport Initiatives Through
Road User Charging – Consultation and Approval Process: Guidance for Local Authorities" in 2001. Old, not available online but as far as I can tell still in force as the legislation it deals with has not changed. It was used by the Council to prepare its 2005 road user charging scheme - which most people forget received 'approval in principle' from Scottish Ministers.
Councillor Jenkinson refers to any potential scheme covering the whole of the central belt. There are a couple of barriers to this. The first is practical - the current legislative set-up only applies to local roads, a congestion charge cannot apply to trunk roads - such as the bypass, M8, M9 and so on. The Scottish Government stated in December 2024 that:
...the Scottish Government does not have a policy position to progress national (Scotland-wide) road pricingWhich looks like road user charging on the nationwide trunk road network is not likely in the foreseeable future. Doesn't rule the scheme out completely, but massively complicates its implementation.
The second barrier to such a scheme would be political. I cannot see Councillors in West Lothian, Falkirk, South Lanarkshire and the rest ever signing up to such a scheme - the political cost would be too great and the opportunity for attacks on "metropolitan elites" in the big cities simply too good to ignore, especially in the current political climate.
So why propose such a scheme and not one wholly within the Edinburgh Council area? I can't speak for the Councillor's motivations, but if I wanted to look like I was doing something on traffic demand management without any chance of it ever happening, I would do something similar.
Be interesting to see how this develops. Any thoughts?
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