Wrong to hit rural drivers with pothole tax – MSP
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A PROPOSED "pothole tax" would unfairly hit rural motorists, an MSP has warned.
Highlands and Islands Conservative Jamie Halcro Johnston said the suggestion for a new "pay-as-you-drive" tax to cover pothole repairs risked disproportionately hitting drivers living in rural areas.
The idea was put forward at a meeting of Holyrood’s Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee earlier this week as a way of meeting the costs of maintaining Scotland's road network.
The committee heard an argument by vice-president of the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation Neil Johnstone as councils struggle to keep up with spiralling road repair costs.
Mr Halcro Johnston said: "Faced with a huge repair bill for our roads, some bodies are clearly looking for new ways of raising money to pay for the costs.
"But it is quite wrong to add another financial burden on people who live in rural areas and who, inevitably, are more dependent on cars for getting about. They have far fewer public transport alternatives and would be hit disproportionately hard by a tax like this.
"The deterioration of our road network is a direct consequence of inadequate funding by the SNP Government in Edinburgh, as well as their squeeze on the budgets of rural local authorities like Moray.
"Our local councils maintain the greater part of our local road network but, with the SNP hoarding increasing amounts of taxpayers’ cash on projects in the Central Belt, that has a real impact on those councils’ ability to meet even their existing commitments."
Work to fix defects on Moray's roads between 2017-18 cost £604,759.
