Edinburgh denies road charging plans
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• Edinburgh City Council is denying reports that a road user charging scheme for driving in the city centre could be introduced by as early as 2004.
Although the council's transportation committee has decided to "look further into a report advocating the early introduction of charging, any implementation will be "years away", says a spokeswoman.
The report, written by the council development director George Hazel, advocates that Edinburgh should be the city which takes the lead in combating road congestion. Hazel wants the council to seek fund
ing from the European Commission to invest in such a charging scheme.
Glasgow City Council has already taken advantage of European funding with the award of £250,000 to investigate the possibility of building a four-lane bridge over the River Clyde.
The bridge would be positioned between Kingston Bridge and the Bell's footbridge.
The report comes only weeks after drivers suffered tailbacks of over nine miles in Glasgow when the city's traffic control computer malfunctioned (CM11-17 March).