By Lucy Ashton
MSP Jackie Baillie has hit out at SNP-led Glasgow City Council’s plans to slap motorists with toll charges for using the Clyde Tunnel.
Council chiefs in the city were considering a workplace parking tax for commuting motorists but have changed their minds.
However boundary charges and Clyde Tunnel tolls remain on the table.
Dame Jackie fears that hard-pressed residents of Dumbarton, the Vale and Helensburgh and Lomond, could be hit with unfair charges when going to work, accessing hospitals or even going shopping, within the city’s boundaries.
She has raised concerns that patients attending the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH), which stands next to the Clyde Tunnel at Govan, could be amongst those paying extra.
Glasgow City councillors hoping to raise revenue have discussed the possibility of imposing road tolls on those entering from outside the city.
They have also failed to rule out the possibility of tolling the Clyde Tunnel – the ageing 62-year-old road link is thought to cause an annual maintenance funding headache for city councillors.
Business leaders and Labour councillors on Glasgow City Counci have objected to the plans after the city was already hard hit both by Covid and Emission Zone fees.
But Dame Jackie, left, fears that residents travelling from her Dumbarton constituency could also be hit.
She said: “These measures would simply amount to yet another tax on motorists and on hard-pressed households.
“The SNP appear to know the price of everything but the value of nothing.
“Many residents of communities within my constituency need to access the city for a variety of reasons – including to reach hospital appointments at the QEUH and Glasgow Royal.
“Public transport is not always suitable or reliable.
“The SNP should rethink this plan, which would have a disproportionate impact on ordinary people. I utterly oppose any plan for boundary charges or road tolls to reach the city.”