Transport Edinburgh Referendum

Referendum Archive

Edinburgh votes for Base Transport Strategy

Voters in the Transport Edinburgh referendum voted against the Council’s Preferred Strategy, which included introducing a congestion charging scheme. The postal referendum was held from 7 February to the 21 February 2005.

133,678 people voted No (74.4%) and 45,965 voted Yes (25.6%). The turnout was 179,905 and 291,228 people were eligible to take part in the ballot (61.8% turnout).

The question put in the Referendum was:

"The leaflet enclosed with this ballot paper gives information on the Council's transport proposals for Edinburgh. The Council's 'preferred' strategy includes congestion charging and increased transport investment funded by it. Do you support the Council's 'preferred' strategy?"

This means that Edinburgh citizens have voted in favour of the base strategy set out in the Council’s Local Transport Strategy. Congestion charging will not be introduced and transport investment in Edinburgh and the surrounding area will be funded by the Council and the Scottish Executive as it is now.

Press release on Referendum Result - 22/02/05 (Word)
Press release on Referendum Result - 22/02/05 (pdf)
Frequently asked questions about congestion charging
Inner and outer cordon maps
The Public Inquiry Report
The Council’s Response to the Public Inquiry Report
The Draft Congestion Charging Order (pdf)

Some of these documents are in Adobe Acrobat's Portable Document Format (pdf). If you do not already have the Acrobat Reader you can download it for free from Adobe by clicking the yellow Acrobat button below.

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