Hansard

I am compelled to speak in the debate on behalf of Glaswegians like me who will be inadvertently impacted by a charge from the SNP council, which, although it is aimed at people living outside the city boundaries, will have an immensely negative impact on Glaswegians, too.

I do not envy the SNP members in the debate having to defend a policy that will have such a negative impact on their constituents’ day-to-day lives. Everyone knows that that will include friends and family outside the city’s boundaries, as well as small businesses, which will not be thrilled at another council policy that makes it easier to stay out of Glasgow than spend money in it.

The SNP Glasgow City Council’s proposals to introduce a congestion charge alongside a toll on the Clyde tunnel are fundamentally unfair. No matter how it tries to justify it, it cannot take away from the essential fact that this is a tax on working people who, in the absence of reliable, affordable and 24-hour public transport, rely on their cars to drive to and from Glasgow to work in Glaswegian businesses, homes and public services and contribute to our economy. Without those people, whom the SNP would like to tax, Glaswegians will suffer.

The SNP can pretend that the charge is for reducing congestion, but while public transport remains so woeful, every Glaswegian knows that it is just a money-raising scheme that the council has been forced into by its own party’s Government underfunding it. People in Hyndland, Partick and beyond now have to pay an emissions charge on top of their parking permit. Even if one’s car is electric and emits no fumes, the congestion charge is spin at best and patronising at worst. That those residents and others in the north of the city who want to use the Clyde tunnel to get to the Queen Elizabeth university hospital either to work or visit their ill relatives might have to pay another additional charge is a very sorry state for the city’s residents to be in.

I, and many Glaswegians, could not function day in, day out without people who live outside our city boundaries, but under these plans, some of the support workers who work with me and my husband every day would have to pay to come to work in the city that they are proud to call home. Many commuters rely on private transport because public transport options are unreliable, costly and sometimes simply not available or accessible. That means that those who are least able to change how they travel and those who are most disadvantaged will be hit first.

In addition, the charge will have a major impact on businesses. Glasgow Chamber of Commerce has warned that firms might relocate unless huge improvements are made first of all to public transport. At a time when workers and businesses are already dealing with price rises caused by international events outwith their control, the implementation of this policy risks creating more of a burden, forcing out customers and businesses.

The premium that Glasgow already pays to maintain infrastructure used by people from across Scotland is not fair, and trying to balance an unjust allocation of money with an unjust charge would be correcting a wrong with another wrong. Glasgow needs greater acknowledgement from the Scottish Government of the footfall that our city attracts; that footfall should be reflected in greater and fairer funding settlements so that Glasgow City Council can properly maintain and build city infrastructure and services without penalising Glaswegians.

For the past 18 years, local government has been cut to the bone by the SNP. As a result, SNP councils are starting a boundary charge war, which can only end with other councils implementing their own boundary charges and the people of Scotland as a whole being less connected and worse off.

I urge SNP ministers to talk to their SNP colleagues in Glasgow City Council about the investment that they need to maintain and build thriving local services. They should also work more closely with local communities, authorities and others to produce legislation that enables them to take buses into public ownership and run them for the needs and wants of the people, not profit.

The expansion of bus networks and improvements in accessible and affordable travel must be prioritised before such charges are even considered. If we want to get people out of cars, we must give them viable alternatives instead of unfairly penalising them. Attempting to build instead of punishing is the only way in which we can successfully deliver climate action and social justice together, and that is what I urge the Government to do.