Transport Priorities
January 29, 2009 12:00 AM
By Alison McInnes in Parliament Transport Debate
By Alison McInnes in Parliament Transport Debate
The strategic transport projects review process has been a long haul. It has taken 20 months, which is about the same length of time as the gestation period for an elephant. Of course, an elephant has a lot more substance than the STPR. The longer we waited for an outcome, the more we thought that there was bound to be clarity. Why else was it taking so long? However, those of us who were hoping for a coherent, costed and timed transport investment programme were disappointed.
That is for another day; today I want to focus on what is not in the plan. I want to focus on projects on which the SNP campaigned vigorously and improvements that the SNP told voters were political priorities. The title of the debate is "Transport Priorities", but in reality it is about the honesty and integrity of ministers. I give members a couple of examples of missing links in the north-east: a bypass for Elgin, and the dualling of the A90 from Ellon to Peterhead. I use those examples because they were given high priority by people who are now Government ministers.
We are becoming used to the SNP's broken promises, but worse, in this context, Government ministers continue to suggest that certain transport projects will happen, even though the review that ministers signed off in Cabinet and presented to the Parliament excludes those projects. Ministers who have failed to persuade their Cabinet colleagues of the merit of their case have gone back to their constituencies and suggested the opposite.
I wonder why Mr Stevenson did not even manage to convince himself of the merits of dualling the A90 from Ellon to Peterhead. In June 2006 he said:
"it is extremely regrettable that the Scottish Government has not taken the opportunity to extend the dualling of the A90 north of Ellon as part of the same programme of development."
If Stewart Stevenson could not persuade himself, surely the First Minister would manage to persuade him. After all, Alex Salmond said in February 2007:
"I have already put on record my commitment to bringing forward plans to dual the A90 and A96 if elected Scotland's First Minister in May".
Moreover, Alex Salmond's election address leaflet, which was entitled-members will like this-"The man you know; The man you trust" said:
"Alex has pledged to lead a step change to bring our beleaguered transport network into the 21st century, including the dualling of the A96 and A90".
We know now that the dualling of the A90 from Ellon to Peterhead has been ruled out in the STPR. That has left the First Minister clutching at straws. A spokesman for the First Minister has hinted that improvements to the road could still be in the pipeline, but on 19 January Alex Salmond was quoted in The Press and Journal as saying:
"It is up to Transport Scotland the nature of what is to be done, but the things which could be done include dualling."
That is double-speak of the worst kind, which has led to press headlines such as, "New hopes of dualling key road in north-east", although the truth is that the interventions that are proposed in the STPR-I refer members to page 68 of report 4-amount to no more than road safety improvements and are far short of what was promised. The SNP appears to be haemorrhaging credibility at every turn-and its members know it, because they resort to weasel words when they are in their constituencies.
Despite the SNP's repeated calls in opposition for an Elgin bypass, the SNP Government has not included the bypass in its investment plans. However, members should not fear: Richard Lochhead says that he will keep making the case. We might ask, the case for what-the project's inclusion in the next 20-year plan? His credibility is in tatters.
The SNP is unwilling to prioritise and unable to admit that it overpromised, but it continues to try to mislead everyone by suggesting that we can have it all. George Orwell wrote:
"Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind".
Who knew that Orwell had met the Scottish National Party? The STPR has no substance, but how could it, when it was written by the Government?
I move amendment S3M-3322.1, to insert after "A9":"A90"
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