SCOTLAND’s Transport Secretary has rubbished claims that Scots could be charged £15 a day to drive under the SNP Government.
It follows a story published in the Scottish Daily Express which suggested Scots could be charged to drive their car in town and cities under plans being considered by the SNP.
Ministers have pledged to cut car kilometres by 20% by 2030 with the newspaper reporting Transport Scotland commissioned an independent report looking at ways to achieve this goal.
It said two options were being considered – one of which included a local daily charge for driving in all large urban areas in the Glasgow conurbation, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen.
It said the prices being considered were £5, £10 and £15 a day in a bid to raise £800 million.
The report further added that a second option would be charging per kilometre driven on any road and implemented by the Government.
Politicians react
The Scottish Tories were among those to hit out at the plans, describing it as another “punishing” anti-motorist project.
The party’s transport spokesperson Sue Webber said: “The SNP have repeatedly missed their own emission reduction targets but are now looking to punish motorists to make up for their own mistakes.
“It is frankly outrageous that the SNP are now considering charging them at the same time while they have failed to fix our pothole-ridden roads.
“If the SNP want to meet their own climate targets, they should be focusing on making public transport reliable and affordable, rather than ramping up their war on motorists.”
However, Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop replied to the story, pointing out this was not in the Scottish Government’s plans.
She said: “‘And is not Scottish Government policy.’
"Of course you get the position of the Government only if you read right to the end and not in the headline or extensive opposition attacks.
“‘The research was undertaken by an independent consultancy and is not Scottish Government policy.’”
A spokesperson for the Scottish Government said: “The Scottish Government has been clear that reaching our target of a 20% reduction in car use by 2030 will require a broad combination of interventions, including infrastructure, incentives and disincentives.
“Their Transport Demand Management research was commissioned by Transport Scotland in June 2022 to add to the evidence based on how to reduce car use fairly in Scotland.
“The research was undertaken by an independent consultancy and is not Scottish Government policy.
“While the research includes hypothetical modelling of both local and national options for demand management in Scotland, the Scottish Government does not have a policy position to progress national road pricing.”
