Group tired of Scots Gov empty platitudes calling for a stop to carbon intensive projects
A SCOTS sustainable transport group have suggested that the city region deals are damaging for the environment, with over 70% of the transport budget being spent on carbon intensive projects.
Transform Scotland have released a report this morning analysing how different local authorities have spent funding provided to them through the city region deals, which are individual funding packages supposed to stimulate economic growth based on the needs of the specific region.
The group have pointed to the fact that £900m of the £1.3bn of the allocated transport spending in the deals is being spent on carbon intensive road development projects suggesting that this stands in contradiction to the Scottish Government’s 2045 net zero commitment.
Colin Howden, Transform Scotland Director, said: “The City Deals provided an opportunity for transformational investment in transport in our cities, but local and national politicians have instead blown the cash on a new round of road-building that will inevitably generate more traffic and higher emissions.
“These politicians could have decided to reduce inequalities by investing in public transport and in our streets, but instead they decided to worsen inequalities and increase climate emissions by spending public funds on schemes that will further benefit the more affluent.
“We’re fed up with Scotland’s political class mouthing empty platitudes about ‘net zero’ and ‘anti-poverty’ yet decade after decade making deliberate decisions to build new infrastructure that makes the country’s climate failure more and more certain, and neglects to provide fairer access to transport for the country’s poorest.”
The group said that the Scottish Government need to halt the road projects and invest the money into public transport instead, the concern being that overinvestment into road projects commits too much to much to motoring, an unsustainable form of transport and also neglects public transport infrastructure.
Mark Ruskell, Scottish Greens Environmental spokesperson, said: “The Scottish Greens have long been critical of the City-Regional Deal models and their focus on costly high carbon transport projects that were designed for a different era.
“Far too many of the deals have roads at the heart of them, with projects like the Sherrifhall Roundabout that are designed for ever-increasing traffic at a time when we badly need to be cutting the number of journeys we are making in cars.
“Some of these projects clearly need to be reconsidered, especially in light of this data and the worsening climate crisis.
“We should be investing in high quality public transport and infrastructure that will help us to cut emissions.
“Our cities must be accessible, liveable and sustainable. That cannot happen if we are ploughing ever greater sums into polluting projects.”
But how possible is this? City regions deals by their nature are supposed to grant more spending autonomy on a regions needs.
For example, the £90m put aside for Aberdeen to support an oil and gas technology centre, Aberdeen being region that spent all their transport budget on carbon intensive projects.
The UK and Scottish Governments negotiated with the local authorities deals based on the economic priorities of the region.
Dr. Bill McDougall, politics lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University, said: “The idea of city [regional] deal is that you should all get something out of it.
“If you’re involved in certain types of city deals and it’s about economic growth, then that’s going to push you in the direction of certain types of policies.”
Dr. McDougall added: “The idea was to give local authorities more control rather than a one size fits all model that is used across the whole of the UK in terms of urban policy.”
The Scottish Government may suggest that it is not for them to dictate regional priorities to the local authorities, Transform Scotland may suggest that net zero is all our privities.
