LABOUR PARKING BILL WAS ‘HYPOCRITICAL’ AND ‘IRRESPONSIBLE USE OF TAX PAYERS MONEY’

LABOUR PARKING BILL WAS ‘HYPOCRITICAL’ AND ‘IRRESPONSIBLE USE OF TAX PAYERS MONEY’

Commenting today on the failure of Paul Martin’s Bill, which aimed to pay private companies millions for parking facilities at hospitals, Bob Doris MSP has criticised the hypocrisy of the Labour Party on the issue.

Mr Doris said:

"Paul Martin knows that it was Labour that brought in regulations to allow £12 a day charges at hospital car parks in Scotland. It was also the election of an SNP Government that led to these charges being abolished.

"Paul Martin's Private Members Bill is an exercise in hypocrisy and futility. Why have a Bill to support abolishing charges that Paul Martin and the last Labour Executive actually brought in and an SNP government have already scrapped?

"There is already free car parking at all Scottish hospitals with the exception of three, including the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow. The reason these car parks still have charges is because Labour used the private finance initiative to fund them. To buy the contracts out would be hugely expensive, especially given the £500m cuts to Scotland from UK Labour.

"I can assure constituents I will work with Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board to improve provision of car parking at our hospitals but I will take no lessons from Paul Martin".