{"id":79926,"date":"2025-05-06T19:26:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T19:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/79926\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T19:26:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T19:26:18","slug":"edinburgh-councillor-slams-scottish-government-as-car-reduction-targets-scrapped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/79926\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh councillor slams Scottish Government as car reduction targets scrapped"},"content":{"rendered":"

The news that the Scottish Government is dropping its targets to reduce car usage in the country deserves \u2018condemnation\u2019, according to an Edinburgh councillor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the Scottish Government put forward a target to cut the number of kilometres travelled by car by 20% by 2030.<\/p>\n

But, late last month, Scottish Transport Secretary<\/a> Fiona Hyslop told a parliament committee that the target would be dropped.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/b> East Lothian developer demand for bigger driveways rejected over ‘vehicle creep’ fear<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/b> Old photo of East Lothian cottage settles battle for new windows<\/a><\/p>\n

Green co-convener councillor Chas Booth has put forward a motion to Thursday\u2019s Edinburgh Council meeting criticising the step, and asks the council leader to write to Hyslop expressing displeasure with the change.<\/p>\n

The target has been used to support several traffic reduction schemes in the capital, including the low traffic area in Leith.<\/p>\n

A report by Audit Scotland in January of this year found that the country had made \u2018minimal progress\u2019 in achieving the target since 2018.<\/p>\n

It found that, since 2018, the number of kilometres travelled by car in Edinburgh had decreased only 5%.<\/p>\n

Across the country, car kilometres travelled decreased steeply during Covid, but the report shows that levels have returned to pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n

However, it did find that Edinburgh still has the third highest number of households without cars, at 37%, beaten by Inverclyde and Glasgow.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The car kilometres reduction target helped to support several schemes in their planning stages, such as the low traffic area in Leith<\/p>\n

And it has the second lowest number of households with more than one car, beaten only by Glasgow.<\/p>\n

Cllr Booth\u2019s motion asks the council to note that recent Scottish Government changes have made \u2018investment in sustainable transport extremely challenging\u2019.<\/p>\n

It cites uncertainty over funding for bus priority works, and poor funding for both trial and permanent schemes that promote walking and cycling over driving.<\/p>\n

He noted the Audit Scotland report in his motion, calling out that it identified transport as the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country.<\/p>\n

Cllr Booth\u2019s motion will be discussed at the next full meeting of Edinburgh Council on Thursday, 8 May, which you can view.<\/p>\n

Join <\/b>Edinburgh Live’s Whatsapp Community here<\/b><\/a> and get the latest news sent straight to your messages.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The news that the Scottish Government is dropping its targets to reduce car usage in the country deserves…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[38935,748,1102,37802,38934,4884,38936,712,11312,21429,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-79926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-audit-scotland","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-edinburgh","11":"tag-edinburgh-council","12":"tag-fiona-hyslop","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-reduction-schemes","15":"tag-scotland","16":"tag-scottish-government","17":"tag-target","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114462535659885045","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}