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Scots fume at city tolls
Page 9
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• by Tim Maughan A Midlothian tipper operator has branded Edinburgh's forthcoming congestion charge a "slap in the face" after discovering that the scheme will cost his business £20,400 a year in daily tolls.
Mark Williams, managing director of Dalkeith firm Neil Williams Haulage, sends a fleet of 40 tippers into the city every day. The congestion charge, likely to begin in 2006, will mean that every vehicle will incur a £2 daily charge to enter either the outskirts or the city centre.
"We run tippers into the city centre as well as Leith Docks," says Williams. "Surely trucks ferrying aggregates are a necessity—we are not going into the city to shop, we are going in to do a job. This is a real slap in the face."
The inner zone charge will be in force from Tam to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday, while the outer zone fee will run from Tam and 10am and 4pm to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday.
A referendum on the charge is to be held in the next three years, but a recent consultation showed that the public believes measures need to be introduced to tackle the city's congestion problem, Councillor Andrew Burns, executive member for transport at Edinburgh City Council, argues that operators will be able to avoid the charge by rescheduling their drops. He says: "They definitely have a choice. All they have to do is enter the inner cordon at 6.59 in the morning. Congestion charging will make Edinburgh a place to do business, not a place to avoid."
• More on Edinburgh's congestion charge in next week's CM.