Meeting of the Parliament 27 November 2025
I had not intended to contribute, so thank you for allowing me to speak, Presiding Officer. I will try to be quick and to take less than four minutes. I also thank Jackson Carlaw for bringing the debate to the chamber.
I represent Coatbridge and Chryston in North Lanarkshire, which directly adjoins Glasgow city, so heading into town, as the saying goes, is a major and regular part of life. People travel into town for work, study, leisure, health appointments and so on.
I do not often speak in the chamber on a Glasgow City Council policy or decision, but, as others have said, this proposal directly affects my constituents, who, incidentally, do not get a vote in Glasgow City Council elections and, therefore, need me to speak for them. As we have heard, my constituents, who have contacted me in fairly large numbers, are very much against the proposal. Folk feel that they will be penalised for travelling for work or leisure. There could also be the unintended consequence of people in places such as Lanarkshire and my constituency feeling more negative towards Glasgow. It is an amazing city with so much to offer, so why would the council want to do that? However, I remind the chamber that this is only a proposal. Please let us remember that and bring some calm to our debate.
I understand that part of the reasoning behind the proposal is to increase public transport use and, therefore, reduce congestion. However, public transport is not always a suitable option. The cabinet secretary will be happy to hear that, in my constituency, train services, such as those on the Sunnyside, Kirkwood and Stepps lines, are generally pretty good at getting people into and out of the town. The buses are a bit more hit and miss and are often unreliable for a variety of reasons that I do not have time to go into. My office picks up a lot of work on that issue, particularly in relation to the northern corridor of my constituency—probably more so than in relation to the Coatbridge area, where the relatively new Citylink service has been a big help in picking up some of the slack.
I urge Glasgow City Council to put the brakes on, so to speak, with its proposal and, instead, to work with other local authorities, such as the council in North Lanarkshire, where I am, to improve public transport routes across the region that is served by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport.
Paul Sweeney raised a very important point about the Clyde tunnel, which deserves wider consideration. There is an argument that we should all pay for the tunnel. However, it cannot be done by charging people who go into and out of Glasgow. There may be an argument that all the nearby local authorities should help pay, because it is not fair that people in Drumchapel who do not use cars pay for the Clyde tunnel, while people such as me can use it without paying.
I agree that it is important to reduce car use and ease congestion on the M8. There is absolutely no doubt about that—anybody who uses the M8 would agree with that—but this is not the way to do it. I join the calls for Glasgow City Council to think again on the issue.
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