As if things weren’t bad enough for Scotland’s capital city already, Edinburgh City Council is imposing a new diabolic rule. At least, diabolical for the city’s already ailing economy.

The Existing Legacy: Driving Away Tourists

First a quick recap. The City council already succeeded in crushing the number of places to stay in the capital by placing ridiculously strict restrictions on whether or not you could rent out a room in your own home. The result was as expected, the places to rent during the Edinburgh Festival became staggeringly expensive. One apartment was offered at $42,000 for August last year, the month when the festival happens.

Subsequent to those regulations being put in, the Scottish high court has ruled that the restrictions were unlawful. It was a black eye for the council, but still nothing much has changed since then in terms of available places to rent in the city.

People renting out their homes or buildings they’d purchased to rent out are still outraged as can be heard in this interview from last year with Fiona Campbell, CEO of the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers. She was thrilled with the court ruling but not with the current situation.

This matters because the Festival is one of the three top global events in the world, alongside the World Cup (soccer) and the Olympics. The moves on restricting private rentals will ultimately mean fewer tourists visiting the capital. That will almost certainly mean businesses will suffer and sooner or later employees will lose their jobs.

Car Park Sharks Add More Eye-Watering Pain

That’s pretty bad as it is. But the new rule on parking a car in the city is set to add what will be the icing on the cake of economic destruction of the city center’s economy.

Here’s what’s planned. On April 3, the price for on street parking will jump by 20% to GBP 6.70 an hour ($8.49) or GBP 54 a day, according to a recent story in the Midlothian Review. That would be the cost of parking while working a seven hour day with a one hour lunch break. Other places will be less expensive but not cheap.

OK, so parking costs. We know this. But when you look at the data this parking charge will hit the average employee in a brutal way. The average salary in Scotland last year was GBP 27,710 ($35,133), according to the Scottish Parliament.

Anyone wanting to park for work in Central Edinburgh would now pay GBP 14,150 a year, or more than half the average pretax annual salary for someone living in Scotland, assuming they work five days a week every week.

As far as I can see this policy will deter people from both living in the city center or from visiting the retail stores in the city center. Everyone will suffer but some more than others.

I have been told that the Edinburgh Council along with the Scottish Parliament typically do things with good intent. And I have replied that to believe that you’d also have to believe that those lawmakers would have to have received the worst possible economic policy advice available.

It’s almost as if the elected representatives in Scotland want to destroy its economy.