NEWS RELEASE - February 14th 1999

TRANSform's member groups issue challenges to Scotland's political parties

The AGM of TRANSform Scotland, held yesterday in Stirling, and attended by representatives of 25 TRANSform member groups as diverse as local authorities, rail and bus operators, health and disability campaigners, environmentalists and rail and cycle campaign groups, additionally called for:

(a) the Government and the political parties to pledge to redirect funds from road-building to allow a doubling of the Scottish Public Transport Fund; (2)

(b) the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, to replace the Fuel Duty Escalator (the annual 6% rise in the cost of petrol) with an Urban Area Fuel Surcharge to be applied across urban central Scotland. Funds raised would be earmarked for spending across Scotland, thus offsetting the effect of the Fuel Duty Escalator on rural areas; (3)

(c) the Scottish political parties to pledge to scrap the destructive M74 Northern Extension proposal and replace it with more realistic - and considerably less expensive - projects like rail electrification from Glasgow to Edinburgh, and bus and lorry priority on the M8 through Glasgow. (4)

Colin Howden, Campaign Manager of TRANSform Scotland, commented:
"We've not seen much evidence so far that the Scottish political parties are prepared to take seriously the challenges outlined by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in last year's Transport White Papers. By making pledges to adopt the policies our members have called for, Scotland's political parties can show that they're not running scared from tackling our transport predicament."

Colin Howden continued:
"One simple step the parties can take is by pledging that their MSPs will get to the Parliament by bike, bus, train or by walking. If our MSPs are not prepared to do this, why should anyone take the political parties' warm words about providing better public transport seriously?"

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

(1) The full text of the AGM Resolutions is available on request.

(2) The Scottish Public Transport Fund, introduced by the Scottish Office alongside the Scottish Transport White Paper last summer, is set at £30 million per year for three years. While welcomed by TRANSform Scotland and others, the amount is far too low to have much impact: by way of comparison, the Scottish Office will be paying £20 million every year for the foreseeable future just to pay the private contractors still building the ludicrously over-capacity six-lane M74 to Carlisle.

(3) When the Fuel Duty Escalator was introduced it was sold as a "green tax"; however, its tax impact is regressive: it unnecessarily penalises deep rural area that are genuinely car dependent, and poor motorists who drive only limited distances every year. The Urban Area Fuel Surcharge has been shown to work well in Vancouver in Canada, being easy to collect and having been shown not to distort petrol purchase patterns: more information is available on request.

(4) Last month, the Scottish Association for Public Transport (SAPT) launched detailed proposals for rail, bus and limited road developments in south Glasgow (see Herald, 18/01/99) or available on request. For example, electrification of the rail link from Glasgow to Edinburgh via Shotts is estimated to cost in the region of £30 million: considerably better value than £170+ million for an 8-10 lane elevated motorway through a densely-populated inner-city area.

(5) TRANSform Scotland brings together 51 organisations - including transport operators, local authorities, national environment campaigns & local transport groups - interested in transport, the environment and a sustainable Scotland. We can be contacted at 72 Newhaven Road, Edinburgh, EH6 5QG. Tel.: 0131-467-7714; Fax: 0131-554-8656; E-mail: campaigns@transformscotland.org.uk; web: http://www.transformscotland.org.uk

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