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Chamber

Plenary, 21 Mar 2007

21 Mar 2007 · S2 · Plenary

Item of business

Park-and-Ride Sites (South Edinburgh)

Fox, Colin SSP Lothians Watch on SPTV

As is traditional on these occasions I, too, congratulate Mike Pringle on securing the debate. His motion raises important issues that many of my constituents—not just residents of south Edinburgh, but commuters into the city from further afield—have raised with me. The issue is not just park and ride, but traffic congestion and the need for better public transport.

In the light of Mike Pringle's criticism in his introductory remarks of Labour's record in the City of Edinburgh Council, it is a shame that no Labour members are here to defend that record and to participate in the debate. Kenny MacAskill declared an interest by saying that he lives in south Edinburgh. I will make a revelation—or confession—by saying that I, too, live in south Edinburgh, in the Inch. I see daily the nature of the problem that Mike Pringle has highlighted in relation to the new Edinburgh royal infirmary. Staff at the infirmary, where there are car parking charges of £10 a day—we have discussed that issue many times—understandably seek to avoid those exorbitant charges by parking in side streets throughout the Inch and Moredun, from where they can make the short walk to the infirmary. I suppose that we should welcome their enforced fitness regime—at least they are walking a greater distance from their cars to work.

The free and efficient park-and-ride facilities at Sheriffhall, Straiton and Lothianburn that are the urgent, obvious solution that would end the misery of that logjam and its impact on local residents have been a long time coming. I read SESTRAN's briefing this afternoon and note that the three park-and-ride schemes are now due to open late next year. I also note that its forecast for traffic and population growth indicates that we may need even more such facilities throughout the area.

I was struck by one small detail in SESTRAN's briefing—the hovercraft service that it plans from Kirkcaldy to Portobello. I know that no one could imagine that that is part of south Edinburgh, but in the current climate I wonder whether there is any truth in the rumour that John Collins is to operate it, because many people down in Portobello think that he already walks on water, after the result at the weekend.

If ever there were an experience that makes the case for park and ride and public transport, surely it is travelling on the Edinburgh city bypass in the rush hour. I know that Sunday evening is not the rush hour, but last Sunday I had an experience that is typical of many. I was held up because of an accident at the Lothianburn exit and took more than hour to travel just a mile. Sheriffhall, where we are talking about siting the park and ride, is a bottleneck day and night. It is a bottleneck every hour of the week. I do not know whether it is a bad design, but no matter what direction people approach from—south from Dalkeith, north from Danderhall, east from Musselburgh or west along the bypass—it is murder polis. The experience of rush hour on the bypass cannot be considered one of the joys of living in the capital of Scotland. It offers no quality of life at all.

The debate inevitably comes back to arguments that we have rehearsed about congestion charges and the need to reduce traffic volumes. Other members have expressed their views on the referendum on congestion charges. I think that the citizens of the city were right to reject the council's scheme. The scheme was premature and—if I may use a colloquialism—arse about elbow. It was back to front, with charges made first and improvements perhaps coming later. That is why it failed.