Why North Berwick rebels can win the parking battle

My column, published in today's Scotsman (7th July 2026).

It’s hard to imagine a more idyllic spot than North Berwick. Just 25 miles east of Edinburgh, with a beautiful coastline, a picturesque harbour, and surrounded by some of Scotland’s finest links golf courses, it’s easy to see why the East Lothian town is one of our most desirable places to live.

You might assume such a prosperous place would be a haven of tranquillity, but you’d be wrong. A revolt is simmering, and it’s testing the very health of local democracy.

On the face of it, the uprising centres on a fairly trivial matter – East Lothian Council’s introduction of parking charges to the previously unregulated town. The council may have thought it would be a pushover, judging the locals to be supine with less than half East Lothian’s voters turning out at the local elections.

But if that was the thinking, it was wrong. A sizeable group is in open revolt, not just writing aggrieved letters to the press, but taking direct action, including vandalism of parking meters.

For their part, East Lothian Council is following the example of many cash-strapped councils. Dressed up as being ‘in the community’s interest’ with the usual sprinkling of green ‘garnish’, the parking scheme is, like the rest, about making money.

It’s easy to see why. Having been systematically stripped of resources by Holyrood over the last decade, councils have had to resort to all kinds of ‘fundraising’, particularly the highway robbery of motorists, the softest of targets.

Obviously some North Berwick citizens see this imposition for what it is – the thin end of an expensive wedge. First come parking meters in busy streets, unwary visitors are always the easiest to catch. But before you know it, the displacement of visitors’ cars to mainly residential streets heralds residential parking charges.

In short order, people find themselves paying increasingly large sums to park their cars outside their own homes, on roads they have already paid for.

It is a familiar story, played out in towns across Scotland, and it begs a fundamental question about the health of our local democracy. Democracy is defined as “a system of government in which political power is vested in the people”. In short, our elected representatives should be doing things for us, not imposing things on us.

But North Berwick’s rebels can take heart. History shows that, with perseverance, they will prevail, and there are some good nearby examples. Portobello, another seaside town, recently fought off the avaricious intentions of Edinburgh Council, which wanted to impose new expensive parking charges.

Edinburgh Council has done more to punish and exploit motorists than any other local authority, raising £15 million a year in the process. Despite this, the good people of Portobello resisted its efforts by organising, agitating, and raising petitions with thousands of signatures, prompting the council to think again. The people of Corstorphine have been similarly successful in removing a ‘bus gate’, set as a trap for motorists. It can be done.

The Scottish Borders has a long tradition of independent councillors. Free of party control, they act only in the interests of their people – the very definition of democracy. Now there’s a model to consider. Meanwhile, all strength to the rebels of North Berwick.