Controversial plans to give councils the power to charge for workplace parking have been passed by MSPs.

Holyrood has given its final approval to the Transport (Scotland) Bill by 56 votes to 29 with 18 abstentions.

Scores of amendments to the legislation were considered in a seven-hour session on Wednesday.

The new bill gives Scotland's local councils the power to introduce a workplace parking levy, a measure that was written in after the Scottish Greens agreed to back the minority SNP administration's budget.

It remains in the legislation after a last-ditch bid to remove the charge was defeated by SNP and Green MSPs - with Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats all having voted for it to be removed.

The Bill also gives councils more powers over creating and enforcing new low emission zones, the provision of bus services to meet social needs, and a ban on pavement and double parking.

Nicola Sturgeon said the workplace parking levy lays the foundation for the Scottish Government's "biggest decentralisation of power", following criticism that "devolution has stopped at Holyrood".

The First Minister told the Cosla conference that her government wants to allow local authorities to make more decisions locally, citing the controversial Transport Bill and so-called tourist tax proposals as additional powers for councils.

Speaking in Fife as the Transport Bill was debated in Holyrood, Sturgeon used the example of the workplace parking levy as a sign of things to come from the Scottish Government's ongoing review of local government. "We want to do more to empower individuals and communities," the First Minister said, adding: "Across the country there is a real appetite for more local decision-making.

"The Transport Bill that is going through Parliament in its final stages today contains in it the new power for authorities around workplace parking - something that has been hotly contested in the Scottish Parliament. "But it is a power, it is not a duty.

"It is illustrative of the approach of devolving more power to local authorities to allow local authorities to make those judgements and to take decisions that they think are right for the local circumstances and local needs."