NEWS RELEASE
Tuesday 14th November 2007

Scottish Budget announcement:
Concern at climate change implications of transport spending plans

TRANSform Scotland [1] today welcomed many of the transport elements in the spending review but questioned whether the Government's climate change targets can be met given the large increase in spending on roads.

The Budget announced an increase in spending on motorways and trunk roads from £878.4m (2007/08) to £1181.4m (2010/11), a 34% increase. This means that the total percentage spent on roads will increase from 39% of all transport spending to 46% of all transport spending.

Paul Tetlaw, Chair of TRANSform Scotland, said:

"We welcome the support for bus, rail and ferry travel and the priority being given to improving the inter-city rail network. We believe it is essential to give everyone a quicker and safer means of travel between the Scottish cities.

"We are also encouraged by the increased spending on sustainable and active travel, but this still represents a very small percentage of overall transport spend. We believe that this area needs to be given a much higher priority if we are to meet climate change targets and start tackling Scotland's obesity crisis.

"The scrapping of the Air Route Development Fund is certainly welcome, but we remain concerned about the CO2 implications of the Government's road-building programme.

"Most importantly, while the Government aspires to delivering reductions in emissions, the Budget fails to clearly set out what are the climate change repercussions of the investments it proposes. It is difficult to believe there will be reductions in emissions from transport if we are to see spending on roads go up by a third.

"We recommend that all of the Government's transport investments be vetted to identify whether they will either increase or reduce climate change emissions. This would give a truly sustainable way to target transport investment."

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS:

[1] TRANSform Scotland

TRANSform Scotland is the national sustainable transport alliance, bringing together rail, bus and shipping operators, local authorities, national environment and conservation groups, businesses and local transport groups.

We can be contacted at 5 Rose Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2RD. t: 0131 467 7714; e: <info@transformscotland.org.uk>; w: <http://www.transformscotland.org.uk>.

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