No car parking on non-business days and recess

An exception would need to be made for Disabled drivers, and with more spaces freed up, we could extend invitations to use the car park to pre-planned visitors who are blue badge holders, helping improve accessibility. Another exception could be for electric cars, especially if more charging points were installed. Why stop at non-business days? An MSP's car produces just as much pollution as any other. We could then also reclaim some of the space for other things

Is there a Workplace Parking Levy? Not sure if this in place or not, but think workplaces with car parks need to pay extra tax? It is meant to make it less attractive for workplaces to maintain staff car parking or new office developments to include car parking in their plans

Reduce commuting by car will have the greatest impact of many of the ideas posted here. This data shows annual Co2 savings for an office of 10 people: Ditching Cars as a daily commute – 20 000 kg Changing Staff Canteen to Vegetarian – 1500 kg Installing 10 Solar Panels on Office Roof – 1100 kg Changing all LIghtbulbs to LEDS – 900kg Avoiding Food Waste – 1550 kg

I don't think that an exception should be made for electric cars. Daren Howarth, MD of CLevel, a leading UK carbon consultant said "There’s a convenient myth propagated which is that buying an electric car is somehow an ethical choice, that you can still consume voraciously and curb climate change. The harder truth is that the very notion of personal vehicle ownership may be at odds with the kind of emissions reductions we urgently need"

Okay, if it is not possible to shut the car park, a compromise could be to reduce the number of available spaces. At least that would do something towards the biggest contributor to Co2 emissions in the organisation- private car commuting. If we are serious about being more sustainable something needs to be done to reduce commuting by car

Not sure how true this is, but have heard that some people use the car park at weekends so that they can spend the day in town shopping etc. If this is the case there needs to be a process to prove that the person is working in the building prior to granting a space.

This is tricky, many have valid reasons to drive a car and until we get away from the unsustainability of private vehicle ownership it'll be tough to change It should be possible to set up a voluntary lift share scheme and ban cars in the car park with a sole driver. Many people park in a charged car park or on the road. To be honest the Parliament car park is tiny compared to those provided for SG staff and we should look at a combination of options such as park & ride and shuttle buses.

Some employees can only commute to the office by car due to their home location. Being able to use the car park on non-business days, makes the commuting easier as often it is difficult to find a parking space in Edinburgh. Most often it is not practical for the person to use a split between car & public transport to get to work.

Even if everyone commuted in an electric car, it is not the solution. UK Government’s Science and Technology Committee said: “in the long-term, widespread personal vehicle ownership therefore does not appear to be compatible with significant decarbonisation. The Government should not aim to achieve emissions reductions simply by replacing existing vehicles with lower-emissions versions.”

The suggestion is elitist. Either cease it for everyone or leave it as is.

I work 12 hour shifts weekend and night shifts. My days are long enough without having to work around public transport which in my area the choice of of one bus would make my days and nights even longer. Remember not everyone who works here works Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm!