NEWS RELEASE - Monday 27th January 2003

Jack McConnell announcement on Aberdeen Western Bypass: Labour road-building obsession "worse than the Tories"

Responding to First Minister Jack McConnell's announcement in Aberdeen today [1] that the Scottish Executive will fund a £120 million Aberdeen Western Bypass without any independent analysis having been conducted, TRANSform Scotland now view the Labour Party as "worse than the Tories" in terms of their obsession with road-building.

Colin Howden, TRANSform Scotland Campaign Manager, said:
"This announcement takes Labour's road-building programme to well over £900 million. [2] Even the Tories in the 1990s didn't show such an unthinking obsession with road-building. Anyone who voted for the Labour Party in 1999 thinking that they had a genuine commitment to public transport and the environment has been betrayed. Like Glasgow's M74 Northern Extension, this road project has been given the go-ahead without any independent analysis of sustainable alternatives or of value for money considerations."

The business lobby-led grouping towards constructing a £120 million western bypass of the city (a.k.a. "Western Peripheral Route") has been given the go-ahead despite the 1998 Scottish Office 'Sustainable Transport Study for Aberdeen' [3] which concluded that such a development could have only a minimal impact on congestion reduction in the city. [4]

Colin Howden said:
"It is unfortunate that Aberdeen City Council has thrown in the towel and become a puppet of business obsession with road-building, having reneged on its promise to reduce traffic levels in the city by 20%. Aberdeen's talk about a 'Modern Transport System' is no more than a sick joke; what we have here is the worst of 1960s pro-car, pro-road planning. If this road was to go ahead, the future for Aberdeen will be more traffic, more pollution and a sprawl of out-of-town tin-shed developments." [5]

"Anyone with even a passing knowledge of traffic flows in Aberdeen will know that its main traffic flow problems are on the radial routes into the city at peak hours, something that a bypass of the city would do little to alleviate. What would of course improve matters would be the reinstatement of commuter rail services on the routes parallel to the main road accesses to the city, and measures to control car commuting into the city. It is however clearly beyond the ken of Labour politicians to deliver such services, focussing vainly instead on a road project that doesn't even tackle the city's peak traffic flow problems."

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

[1] SE press release, 27/01/03: "First minister gives green light for major North East transport boost." [2] Scottish Executive committed spend on new road-building since 1999:
Aberdeen Western Bypass £120 million
M74 Northern Extension £250 million
A8 Bailieston-Newhouse £105-123 million
A80 Stepps-Haggs £120 million
A1 Haddington-Dunbar £40 million
A78 Bypass of Ardrossan, Saltcoats and Stevenston £33.1 million
A830 Arisaig - Kinsadel £10.8 million
A96 Fochabers - Mosstodloch £17.3 million
A1 additions south of Dunbar £11.4 million
A876 Kincardine Bridge £60 million
M77 Fenwick-Malletsheugh & Glasgow Southern Orbital £130 million

The total cost of these projects is £897.6-915.6 million. (References available on request.)

By comparison, Scottish Executive committed spend on new public transport through the Public Transport Fund 1998-2002 totals only £235 million - see SE press release SEET181/2002: 'Final Awards from Public Transport Fund.'

[3] The 'Sustainable Transport Study for Aberdeen', published in 1998, demonstrated that construction of the Western Bypass would not ease congestion in Aberdeen, even without consideration of the traffic that the new road would generate. The same research suggested that a combination of bus, train, walking, cycling and planning measures could significantly reduce congestion. Even taken together all these measures would cost less than the Western Bypass. Many, such as the reintroduction of supported bus routes, have the further advantage that they could be put in place quickly. See http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library/documents4/susta-00.htm

[4] Aberdeen Friends of the Earth have produced a briefing 'Bypassing the truth' which sets out why the special pleading for road-building in the city is misled - see http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/aberdeenfoe/transport.htm

[5] The Scottish Executive has set itself the target of stabilising road traffic levels at 2001 levels by 2021. The Scottish Executive forecasts increases of 27% in Scottish road traffic levels between 2001 and 2021 if no action is taken to stop this increase. The Executive also believes that 80% of this growth will happen in and around the four cities. Aberdeen City Council has promised a 20% reduction in traffic levels between 2001 and 2021, a promise that will not be delivered if the Western Bypass was to go ahead.