NEWS RELEASE - November 4th 1999

Scottish Executive gets transport plans back on the road

Colin Howden, Campaign Manager of TRANSform Scotland, said:
"The Executive should be congratulated for recognising that we cannot solve our traffic problems by just building more roads. In the face of the opportunistic bleating from opposition parties and the blind demands for more roads by the motoring organisations and big business, the Executive has has stuck to its resolve to tackle congestion and pollution."

On the subject of Scotland's two most destructive roads proposals, Colin Howden commented:
"The Executive's dropping of the proposal for driving a destructive M80 through the Kelvin Valley vindicates the long-standing CARE80 campaign against this scheme. We welcome the study into transport options - road and rail - along the Glasgow-Stirling corridor which will now be carried out."

"Sending the M74 Northern Extension back to its local authority backers is the right decision. If Glasgow City Council wants to take this destructive road scheme forward it will have to convince its Council Tax payers that their interests are served by driving a £177 million eight-lane motorway-on-stilts through their communities. Glasgow must now look at the cost-effective means of serving the city's transport needs rather than blindly promoting outdated 1960s transport thinking."

The Executive's decision to put some of the schemes into "multi-modal corridor studies" is praise-worthy. Colin Howden commented:
"How can we know whether a rail option option might better serve Scotland's inter-urban transport needs if we don't even look at them using the same level playing field. For too long there has been a blind assumption that only more road capacity can solve transport problem - but this has been proved wrong."

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

(1) TRANSform Scotland is the national sustainable transport campaign, bringing together 58 organisations - including transport operators, local authorities, environment and conservation groups, chambers of commerce and 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

(2) Annual average forecast traffic growth rates are of 1.1% to 2.1% until 2016. Growth at the central rate of 1.6% would see 30% more traffic by 2016; high-end traffic growth - such as might be promoted by new roads construction - would lead to over 80% more traffic on the roads in 30 years.

(3) The Campaign for the Retention and Enhancement of the A80 (CARE80), is an alliance of national organisations, local organisations and concerned individuals opposed to the construction of an M80 extension through the Kelvin Valley.

(4) Joint Action Against the M74 (JAM74), is a coalition of community, environmental and sustainable transport groups opposed to the construction of the M74 NE and for a package of economically and environmentally sustainable transport solutions for the area.

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