NICOLA Sturgeon has stressed she does not personally support motorists being charged to use roads but suggested she is content with local councils introducing measures to cut traffic.

The SNP has been accused of hitting drivers with a “triple whammy of anti-driver taxes” with local plans tabled to cut car journeys as part of legal pledges to reduce harmful carbon emissions.

In Edinburgh, the SNP group has proposed a congestion charge on commuters entering the city boundary at peak times, while there is suggestion that plans in Glasgow could include introducing road tolls at some point.

The Scottish Conservatives have also consistently opposed the workplace parking levy. The plans drawn up by the SNP in Edinburgh would see the 200 companies with more than 50 spaces be charged the equivalent of £2 per working day to park at work.

The Scottish Government’s strategy to deliver a promise to cut car journeys includes four key behaviour changes required of the public – to travel less and use online options if possible, to choose more local destinations, to switch to active travel and public transport and combing journeys and car sharing once possible after the pandemic.

But it also points to “further exploration” of “options for demand management to discourage car use, including pricing”, which will be set out in further research to be carried out this year.

READ MORE: SNP pledges to charge commuters to enter Edinburgh-wide congestion zone to cut traffic

At First Minister’s Questions, Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross labelled the plans for a commuter charge in the capital as a “tax on people all over the country who travel to work in Edinburgh, who come to do business, who come to visit family and friends or to use vital service”.

He added: “Scottish Conservatives are completely opposed to this proposal so why are the SNP intent on making driving in our cities unaffordable?”

But Ms Sturgeon quoted from the Tories’ manifesto ahead of last year’s Holyrood election that stated “councils should lead post-Covid reviews of changed travel patterns in their areas and be encouraged to create more low traffic neighbourhoods”.

She said: “On the one hand, Douglas Ross wants to empower local councils then he stands up there and says I should rule out the ability of local councils to decide on things that could help us with that transition to net zero – while of course, supporting travel patterns across the country.

“Not for the first time and I suspect not for the last time, Douglas Ross’s position is completely inconsistent and borders on being ridiculous.”

READ MORE: SNP Government to investigate pricing people out of car use to cut carbon emissions

The Scottish Tory leader accused the First Minister of “complete deflection from the proposals from the SNP” by refusing to answer his question.

He said: “In response to the news to this commuter tax, the Federation of Small Businesses this morning urged councils to avoid additional costs for business.

“They make it clear that a commuter tax would hit tradespeople coming from the Lothians, the Borders, Fife and further afield.”

Mr Ross added: “Anyone working in Glasgow also faces the prospect of extra charges for driving into their city. Glasgow SNP leader Susan Aitken has suggested capping traffic on the M8. She’s also considering introducing toll roads.

“A previous SNP Government scrapped those charges, will you stand up and give a categorical answer that you will not bring them back in again.”

In response, Ms Sturgeon insisted that politicians are grappling with “some really difficult, tough, challenging decisions” about how climate targets can be reached, stressing the need to “make that transition to net zero but have a transport system that still supports our economy and supports the travelling public”.

She added: “It's easy for the Scottish Conservatives to reduce these challenging decisions in a simplistic way that they have. But the rest of us know that these decisions have to be faced.

“This is about empowering local councils to consult on these decisions, to consider the options and to arrive at decisions. That is what we’re doing, that is what the Conservatives used to support but clearly now don’t.”

Ms Sturgeon added that politicians would “come to sensible decisions and back those decisions with investments”.

But Mr Ross explicitly asked the First Minister to “rule out road tolls being reintroduced in Scotland”.

He said: “Across rural areas especially, people still need their cars.

“Right now, there couldn’t be a worse time to further hike the cost of driving. We’re in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, petrol prices are rising globally, yet Nicola Sturgeon wants to tax people off the road by hammering anyone who owns a car.

“The people who will be hit hardest are not the wealthiest but ordinary working people who need their cars and are already struggling with the cost-of-living.”

Mr Ross added: “If the First Minister carries on down this road, Nicola Sturgeon and her SNP candidates are going to force Scotland’s economy into the slow lane.

“The commuter tax should be abandoned, toll charges should be ruled out and her workplace parking tax should be ditched.”

He accused the SNP Government of supporting a “triple whammy of anti-driver taxes”.

In response, Ms Sturgeon said: “I don’t support road tolls but I do support local councils being empowered to consider the tough issues that they face, to consult with the public and to take sensible decisions.

“Yes, people do continue to need their cars- particularly in rural remote parts of our country.

“What is hammering people, including motorists, right now across the country, is the Tory created cost-of-living crisis which an out-of-touch Prime Minister and an out-of-touch Chancellor of the Exchequer have refused to do enough about.”