A LACK of income from coastal car park charging across East Lothian has put the local authority’s landscape and countryside services at risk of failing to deliver services under budget.

A report on the financial performance of East Lothian Council since April has blamed a lack of income from the controversial car park fees and delays to introducing traffic warden replacements in the county for pressures placed on the service.

Enforcement of the fees is currently the responsibility of Police Scotland. However, police issued no fines in relation to the charges between July 2015 and April this year.

Councillor Stuart Currie, SNP opposition leader, who has opposed the coastal car park charges, has now called on the Labour-led council administration that introduced the charges to apologise for “promising a cash cow”.

He said: “Those councillors who brought this forward promising it would be a cash cow should now say sorry. We have our landscape and countryside services on budget watch because their budget was expected to be backed up with an estimated £400,000-plus from coastal car park fees.

“Council officials have already estimated it won’t bring in more than £100,000, despite saying it costs £110,000 to administer, so it is actually costing the council money. The administration relied on an income which is not there and is never likely to be to support services which are now in trouble. Their budget plan might as well have been written on the back of a fag packet.”

The first-quarter report on the council’s performance in this financial year was produced over its summer recess and is publicly available for viewing online in its Members’ Library Service.

It placed landscape and countryside services at medium risk of failing to meet budget targets, three months into the new financial year.

The report said: “Landscape and countryside management area has been categorised as ‘medium risk’ due to the level of income targets in relation to coastal car parking, and the delay in approval and implementing parking decriminalisation. Any income generated is being used to fund and support the coastal car parking programme included within the wider General Services Capital programme, and we will continue to closely monitor the income levels which are being generated during the year.”

Mr Currie said that one of the biggest complaints he received from people was about weeds and grass cuttings being left uncollected by the landscape service.

He said: “Part of the Labour Party’s promise when they came in was that grass would be cut and the cuttings collected and taken away. Now, due to budget restraints, the cuttings are left.

“It was apparent during the Riding of the Marches [in Musselburgh] how much is being left to blow onto paths and create problems for elderly people.

“The people who work in landscape and countryside do an amazing job but they are being pushed beyond what they can do because of a deficit created by Labour Party policies.”

East Lothian Council insisted any shortfall in coastal car parking income would not result in cuts to landscape and countryside services.

A spokesperson said: “The council spent £506,000 from its 2015/16 capital budget on improving coastal car parking and toilet facilities against a budget allocation of £510,000. A further £150,000 has been allocated in the 2016/17 capital budget but this allocation has not as yet been spent. Any shortfall in income from coastal car park charges will not result in cuts in landscape and countryside services or any other council services.”