New attack on congestion charge

And Princes Street traders said there were still questions on whether a congestion charge would have a rejuvenating or a devastating effect on Edinburgh city centre.

Six months after the launch of charges in London, Ken Livingstone revealed that more than 50,000 car drivers a day were avoiding the centre of London, cutting journey times, fuel costs and the number of accidents in the city centre.

But the SNP transport spokesman, Kenny MacAskill, said: "Our view is that Edinburgh is distinct from London. The main difference is the size of London means the impact upon retail and business is significantly less.

"People don’t change their shopping plans to visit Bond Street or Oxford Street to go into Milton Keynes or Leicester, but people might decide to visit McArthur Glen in Livingston rather than Princes Street, because you have to pay to get into the city, it costs you a fortune to park, and you may also get a parking ticket."

Mr MacAskill said a congestion charge in Edinburgh would be an unfair tax on a workforce which had already been priced out of the city by the high cost of living. He added that it would be unreasonable for such a charge to be introduced in Scotland without a referendum.

Robert Winter, the chairman of the Princes Street Association, said representatives from Edinburgh’s city-centre businesses would meet next month to consider the proposed congestion charges.

"At the moment, the Princes Street Association is reviewing the information and considering the arguments put forward by the city council."

Businesses including John Lewis have argued against the charges, saying public transport needs to be improved before charges can be effective.

Earlier this month, Professor David Begg, the chairman of the committee for integrated transport, argued that Edinburgh was already suffering because of congestion and said the success of the charge in London would pave the way for a similar scheme here.

"Congestion charging is needed there now. We have seen the benefits charging can bring in London - for both public-transport users and motorists. There is every reason why Edinburgh should share those benefits. Mayor Ken Livingstone has exceeded his target by delivering a 20 per cent cut in traffic levels in central London, and world capitals are queuing at his door to see how it was done."

At a press conference in London yesterday, Mr Livingstone announced plans to double the size of the zone, taking it further west, in his manifesto for next year’s mayoral elections.

He added: "It is clearly going very well indeed. It overwhelmingly has been most probably the most successful new public policy introduced in the last 20 years. People who have to drive are over the moon. Most people are saving money hand over fist because they are not spending so much of each day stuck in traffic."

Today’s figures give the fullest picture yet of the 5-a-day charge’s impact on deterring motorists from entering the zone - and its success in cutting congestion by around 30 per cent.

The analysis shows that more than half of the 50,000 drivers avoiding the zone have switched to public transport, 20 to 30 per cent are driving around the edge of the zone to avoid the charge, and between 15 and 25 per cent have either taken up cycling or travel in shared cars.

The reduction means that profits from charging motorists coming into the zone will be about 65 million this year. This is half of what was expected, meaning less money can be re-invested in public transport.

But Transport for London (TfL), the Mayor’s agency that oversees the scheme, says it was designed to tackle gridlock and not raise money.

Overall, 80,000 fewer people a day are entering the zone, but TfL says the charge is responsible for only 4,000 of these. The remainder are missing because of the downturn in trade, fall in tourist numbers, closure of the Central Line earlier this year and the impact of out-of-town shopping centres, the mayor’s research will claim.