25 February 2005
Edinburgh has sounded the death knell for city congestion charging schemes outside London by voting three-to-one against the council's proposed two-zone scheme.
Over 74% of voters in Britain's first referendum on the issue rejected the plan to charge £2 for entry to two zones, one covering the outskirts of the city and the other an inner zone in the city centre. On a response of 61.8%, there were 133,678 votes against and 45,965 in favour.
Transport Secretary Alistair Darling, an Edinburgh MP, denied that the rejection was a setback to the government's transport strategy and said road pricing remained the way forward once the technology was developed. He added: 'There is no doubt in my mind that, in common with other major developed countries, we have got to face up to the fact that unless we do something to deal with the amount of traffic coming into city centres, roads will simply clog and traffic grind to a halt.'
But tentative plans for schemes in Bristol, York, Manchester and other cities will now be stillborn, despite Darling's attempts to encourage them with a £2bn innovation fund.
Labour City of Edinburgh Council leader Donald Anderson said: 'The idea is now dead and buried for Edinburgh. But we are as committed as ever to further improving our city's transport.'
Opposition Conservative councillors accused Labour of wasting money on the scheme.
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