Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 23 February 2022
Those who live in urban areas might not escape some of the consequences of the levy either. Residents may now see their streets blocked up by displaced vehicles, which will, for those without driveways, potentially add to the daily battle of finding a space outside their home. All that comes after efforts to make our streets pedestrian friendly and promote a spaces-for-people approach.
For those who are on restricted incomes, the levy could be extremely tough. A disproportionate burden will be placed on people on low incomes and restricted budgets. Over the past two years, we have relied on many of those people. The idea has been floated that businesses could cover the cost of parking levies, but businesses have also had it hard throughout the pandemic, and another financial burden may push some of them from operating to close their doors permanently. What of those who work irregular hours? The levy could leave night-shift workers to pay up, while a day-shift worker can catch a bus. It is tricky for employers to staff irregular working patterns and late shifts, and the workplace parking levy could make those shift patterns harder to fill, which would be another blow to businesses.
We cannot do nothing when it comes to tackling emissions and the climate emergency, but on the levy, we need more answers from the Scottish Government. Scottish Liberal Democrats have sensible and workable suggestions to reach our climate goals. Instead of giving local councils the power to drain our workforce of their income and businesses of cash, we would empower local communities, giving them control over bus routes and timetables, ending deregulation and giving people a better local service that suits passengers. With communities in charge, bus services will go where people need them to go, not where bus companies can make the most profit.
The number of bus journeys taken since the SNP came to power has plummeted; a radical shake-up of Scotland’s transport network is required to reverse that. For young people, we need to extend the under-22 bus concession to internal ferries, which islanders use in the same way as buses, and introduce a similar rail card model as that which operates in London and the south-east, allowing everyone to apply for a third off rail cards, with those currently entitled to it receiving 50 per cent off, encouraging greater use of railways, including at the weekend. Where there are cars, let us make sure that they are as sustainable as possible; we would ensure that all new public service vehicles are phased to become electric vehicles, and a corresponding EV charging network is of course needed.