A controversial report which suggested charging Aberdeen drivers £15 each day to use the city’s roads cost the taxpayer £88,000, the P&J can reveal.
Government agency Transport Scotland spent the five-figure sum on consultancy firm AECOM for the paper even though the SNP quickly distanced itself from the proposals.
The research, published last month, suggested radical measures were needed to bring down private car usage by 20% over the next six years.
It was claimed many drivers won’t change their current habits without “downward pressure” forcing them to.
What did the report say?
The most extreme suggestion was to charge road users in Scotland’s four major cities – including Aberdeen – £15 a day.
That would work out at £5,475 a year for someone who needs to use their car every day.
It was suggested this would cut harmful emissions by 26%.
Alternative proposals put forward suggested charging drivers either £5 or £10 each day.
Readers of The Press and Journal reacted with fury to the idea.
‘Baffling’
One reader said the proposals were “baffling” because public transport is often unreliable.
“Until the bus service is affordable and reliable nobody will change,” said another in agreement.
One reader said the policy idea was “another example of muddle-headed thinking by a dysfunctional Scottish Government.”
The Scottish Government immediately went into reverse gear and dismissed the possibility of a charge being introduced – even though they commissioned the work.
It’s understood SNP transport chief Fiona Hyslop was angry at negative feedback.
But Aberdeen-based Tory MSP Douglas Lumsden claims Transport Scotland has squandered money which could have been spent on the public sector.
He said: “This is yet another example of the Scottish Government wasting more of our taxpayers money on crazy anti-car ideas.
“It would have been common sense to spent this money on teachers instead of this nonsense.”
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