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Some confusion building around the workplace parking levy, which is meant to be added to the Transport Bill via a Green amendment. @SP_RECcttee convener Edward Mountain said this morning that govt has asked for stage two of the bill to be delayed, partly due to this amendment
There are lots of calls for a consultation and various studies about the parking levy, which would add a bit of time to the process - but opposition members also questioning whether it should actually be a whole new bill, which would kick it even deeper into the long grass
A gymnastics prize to SNP MSP Richard Lyle, who specifically reminded members that they’d discussed a workplace parking levy before, because he opposed it – he said “another tax on drivers” would be a “no-no” – before adding that he’ll probably vote for it in this Green amendment 
Here’s a thing: yes, it would be handy to “park” the Transport Bill (sorry), so there’s time for proper consultation on this big amendment. But they’ve also rather run out of time within the current schedule, as we’ve got into a bit of a legislative log-jam at Holyrood…
The Transport Bill is currently down to have stage 1 debate “by 01/03/2019”. But current parly plans for rest of February don’t include it - and there’s barely any room, as pretty much every day for the rest of the month is taken up by other bills which also need to be progressed
We have two stage one debates this week, and then three in the fortnight after recess (as well as preliminary stage of a non-govt bill, budget s3 and the tax resolution). So on course for 7 or 8 big legislative votes this month, having had one in the whole of January (budget s1)
Yes, it’s good that MSPs are debating legislation instead of bland, non-binding general-discussion motions. But we seem to be at the point where there wouldn’t have been time to fit in the Transport Bill even if it hadn’t been somewhat derailed (sorry again) by the parking issue
A lot of timetabling is out of business managers hands, as you can’t hold s1 vote on a bill until a committee has reported on it – eg Rural Economy hasn’t reported on the Transport Bill yet. But surely there must be a way of avoiding this kind of last-minute legislative pile-up?
