Rob Edwards

Revealed: deception over plan for new Forth road bridge

from Sunday Herald, 28 June 2009

The public is being deliberately deceived about the government’s plan to build a new road bridge over the Firth of Forth to make it an easier sell, according to internal documents obtained by the Sunday Herald.

The £2 billion bridge - by far the largest construction project proposed by ministers - is officially badged as a “Forth replacement crossing”. This is despite the fact that it will not replace, but supplement the existing road bridge at Queensferry as part of a “twin crossing strategy”.

The documents reveal that advisers recommended last year that the name be changed to reflect the real role of the new bridge. But this was rejected by the government’s Transport Scotland to protect “political sensitivities” and to avoid “confusion among the public”.

Outraged opponents of the bridge are this weekend demanding that the Scottish government comes clean, and cancels the scheme. In a letter to the finance minister, John Swinney, last night, the Green MSP, Patrick Harvie, accused Transport Scotland of failing to be honest with the public.

Harvie said: “The problems with the crossing are not simply public relations problems. It is now fatally flawed, and I would urge you to scrap it before more money and effort is wasted.”

LibDem ‘hypocrisy’ over airport policy

from Sunday Herald, 24 May 2009

The Liberal Democrats have been accused of being “cynical and hypocritical” over environmental policy after it emerged that they are split over plans to expand Heathrow airport.

The Conservatives are also divided on the issue, which pits leading councillors in the north east of Scotland against their party colleagues in Edinburgh and London.

The divisions have opened up over the Labour government’s highly contentious plan to build a third runway at Heathrow airport, outside London. Although it is LibDem and Conservative policy to cancel the plan, it has been strongly backed by councillors in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.

Nationally, the two parties argue that the new runway will boost dangerous climate pollution and so should not be built. But in the north east, they say it is needed to support the region’s economic development by giving flights from Aberdeen airport more landing slots.

Traffic noise causes stress and sleeplessness, says survey

17 May 2009

One in three people say that noise from road traffic causes them stress and one in five say it wakes them up, according to a UK survey to be released tomorrow.

The most annoying sounds are motorbikes, scooters, car stereos and heavy goods vehicles, and most people think that the disturbance has got worse in the last five years.

Over 1,000 people were questioned in a poll for Environmental Protection UK, which represents pollution control professionals in councils and companies. The results are being published to launch noise action week which runs from 18-22 May.

As many as nine out of ten of those interviewed were in favour of protecting quiet areas like parks and church yards to provide sanctuaries in increasingly frenetic cities. Young people aged between 18 and 34 were those who most often sought quiet areas.

Glasgow in 2030: electric car city

from Sunday Herald, 19 April 2009

It was the tranquility Sandra Harvie loved when she woke up. All around her the city was on the move, but there was hardly a sound. She lay in bed listening to the silence.

It was how she imagined the Greek island her parents had told her about years ago where there were no cars, so all you heard were voices and laughter drifting on the wind. It was invigorating.

It was so blessedly different from the Glasgow she remembered as a child. Some streets had been so noisy then with buses and lorries and cars that they had drowned out speech, and smothered music.

But now, in 2030, her city was quiet and peaceful. As she ate breakfast in her tenement flat she listened to the radio reporting that Glasgow’s clean air index had again broken records, giving the city the safest and most breathable oxygen for decades.

Drive to make Glasgow an electric car city

from Sunday Herald, 19 April 2009

Glasgow could become one of the first electric car cities in Britain under plans launched by government and industry, making it quieter, cleaner and greener.

The city is playing a leading role in the UK government’s drive to transform electric vehicles from the playthings of geeks to a major mode of transport in urban areas.

A £1.8 million scheme to trial 30 electric vehicles in Glasgow over the next two years has been given the go-ahead, at the same time as the government announced plans to give drivers up to £5,000 off new all-electric cars from 2011.

Thousands at risk of pollution from Forth bridge

from Sunday Herald, 22 February 2009

The government is facing a formal complaint to the United Nations about the thousands of people whose health could be endangered by pollution from the newly designed road bridge planned across the Firth of Forth.

Scottish ministers have re-routed the southern approach to the bridge to save money. But this has brought the dual carriageway much closer to local communities, threatening over 8,000 residents with increased risks of asthma, cancer and other diseases from exhaust fumes.

Now residents are preparing an appeal to the UN under the Aarhus Convention, which governs access to justice on environmental issues. The government agency, Transport Scotland, insists that it has not breached the convention.

Recent research from the Harvard School of Public Health in the US suggests that pollution from traffic can damage the health of people up to half a kilometre away. Toxic particles and gases can attack lungs, aggravate asthma in children and have been linked to higher rates of cancers.

Exposed: the class divisions of civil servants

from Sunday Herald, 21 December 2008

Civil servants are reluctant to give up their travel perks to help save taxpayers’ money, according to internal documents obtained by the Sunday Herald.

Despite pleas for cutbacks from managers, Scottish government officials have racked up nearly £4 million on premium rate journeys over the last 18 months. Some £2.68 million has gone on 6,000 high priced flights and £1.12 million on 7,000 first class rail tickets.

The revelations have prompted criticisms of civil servants for failing to set a good example. But the Scottish government insisted that officials had been told to travel in the most cost-effective way possible.

Ministers accused of breaching guidelines on planning consultation

from Sunday Herald, 14 December 2008

The Scottish government has breached its own guidelines by failing to properly consult the public over major planning developments, according to a report due out this week.

Schemes to expand airports, build power stations and construct a new Forth road crossing have been “railroaded” through without asking the communities most directly affected, the report says.

The report has been backed by community and environmental groups as well as MSPs. But it has been roundly dismissed by the Scottish government as “rubbish”.

Road plans ‘wrecking the planet’

from Sunday Herald, 14 December 2008

Major new transport projects given the green light by Scottish ministers will spew out 900,000 extra tonnes of pollution by 2020, jeopardising the government’s targets to tackle climate change.

The transport minister, Stewart Stevenson, told the Scottish Parliament last week that 29 proposed road and rail schemes across Scotland would “cut” carbon dioxide emissions by more than 100,000 tonnes “compared with business as usual”.

But according to the leading environmental group, WWF Scotland, all that means is that a little pollution will be shaved a huge projected increase. Instead of transport emissions growing a million tonnes by 2020, they would grow by 900,000 tonnes.

New car engine that saves fuel

from MIT Technology Review, 03 November 2008

A research project in the UK has developed a gasoline engine that it claims can reduce fuel consumption by 15 percent without losing power.

The key to the new design is the way in which fuel and air are separately introduced into the engine cylinders. By experimenting with different regimes for directly injecting fuel while varying the opening and shutting the air inlet valves, the researchers say they have achieved the major breakthrough in performance--and developed a "concept-car engine" that is gaining interest from big auto makers.

The aim of the project, a collaboration between two leading car engine development companies, Lotus Engineering and Continental Powertrain, and two universities, Loughborough and University College London, is to reduce losses caused by the engine throttle.

Read the rest of the article here.

Ministers under pressure to shift £20m from roads to bikes

from Sunday Herald, 02 November 2008

Scottish ministers are coming under mounting pressure to slice £20 million off the budget for new roads and to spend it on boosting biking instead.

Cycling campaigners have won the support of opposition parties in a bid to persuade the Scottish government to double public spending on cycling projects next year. As a result, MSPs are expecting ministers to alter their budget proposals.

Spokes, the cycling campaign group, has submitted a formal proposal to increase the annual level of spending on bikes from one to two per cent of the transport budget. This could easily be done, it argued, by making a small cut in the massive road-building budget.

MInisters are planning to spend £1,064 million on trunk roads and motorways in 2009-10, an increase of £134 million on 2008-09. Spokes is suggesting shifting just £20 million of this into cycling.

SNP warned about ‘pork-barrel’ politics on transport

from Sunday Herald, 26 October 2008

The SNP government has been warned not to fall prey to the “pork-barrel” politics of previous administrations when deciding on its transport priorities.

Transport experts fear that Scottish ministers will invest in dualling the A9 to appease northern SNP constituencies at the expense of projects to improve travelling by train, bus and bike.

This would repeat the mistakes made by former Labour and LibDem ministers who favoured the Borders rail link and the Aberdeen by-pass despite their shaky economic rationales, the experts say.

The Scottish government is due to publish a review of major transport projects before the end of the year. This will give the first insight into how SNP ministers see priorities from 2012 to 2022.

Revealed: the 380 kilometres of road most at risk of landslides

from Sunday Herald, 05 October 2008

Long stretches of some of Scotland most vital road links are in danger of suddenly disappearing under mud and rocks in bad weather, according to a long-awaited government report.

The report, due to be published by Transport Scotland tomorrow, reveals that 380 kilometres of the trunk road network are at high risk of landslides. For the first time, it pinpoints the 67 places where the risk is judged to be the worst.

The A82, the A83 and the A9 are the roads with the biggest hazards, closely followed by the A86 and the A87. Parts of the country’s key arterial routes like the A1, the A7, the A77, the M74 and the M90 are also at risk.

Transport Scotland’s comprehensive risk assessments, promised more than four years ago, have been welcomed by transport and environmental organisations. But they urge the government to act on the findings, and warn that landslides will increase as pollution warms the globe.

Plan for Borders rail link 'deeply flawed'

from Sunday Herald, 14 September 2008

Plans to build a new rail link from Edinburgh to the Borders have been damned as deeply flawed in a secret government report passed to the Sunday Herald.

An expert analysis for ministers concluded that the business case for the proposed £295 million Waverley line was “very poor”. It was riddled with “significant mathematical and methodological errors” and was founded on “inappropriate application of economic techniques”.

The 35-mile Waverley line was proposed by the former Labour and Liberal Democrat government, but has been endorsed by the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Nationalist government. A half-hourly service is scheduled to run from the centre of Edinburgh to Tweedbank, near Galashiels, from 2013.

Back walking and cycling not cars and planes, ministers told

from Sunday Herald, 14 September 2008

A coalition of six environmental groups will be calling on Scottish ministers to end their bias towards building roads and expanding airports by investing in walking, cycling, buses and trains instead

In a letter tomorrow to the transport minister, Stewart Stevenson, the groups are demanding a halt to the growth in air travel. The government is expected to be announcing the results of its strategic transport projects review soon.

The roads at risk of landslides

from Sunday Herald, 19 July 2008

Vast areas of upland Scotland are vulnerable to landslides in bad weather, putting many of the country’s vital arterial routes at risk.

A map produced by the British Geological Survey (BGS) shows that stretches of the A9, M74 and many other major roads pass through zones where there is a “significant” potential for landslides.

Yet a study promised four years ago by Scottish ministers to pinpoint the precise sites at risk has still not been completed - and the Scottish government has come under fire for its “lack of urgency”.

M74 will undermine air pollution targets, ministers told

from Sunday Herald, 06 July 2008

The government’s plan to extend the M74 into Glasgow will undermine targets to cut air pollution and combat climate chaos, according to secret advice given to ministers.

A memo from officials to the former environment minister, Ross Finnie, in 2005 warned that building the five-mile, six-lane motorway would breach Glasgow’s air quality objective and significantly hamper plans to cut carbon emissions from transport.

But the M74 extension was still given the go-ahead by the previous Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition, and has been backed by the current Scottish Nationalist government. The groundbreaking ceremony to launch construction work in May was headed by the First Minister, Alex Salmond.

Scottish civil servants take 36 flights a day

from Sunday Herald, 29 June 2008

Civil servants have failed to kick their flying habit. In the last year Scottish government officials have spent £1 million of public money taking 8,700 flights between Scotland and England.

On average they made 36 flights every working day, mostly between Edinburgh and London. They also flew regularly to Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Inverness.

As part of its bid to “go greener”, the Scottish government is urging members of the public to “choose not to fly when there's a suitable alternative”. The vast majority of the journeys made by civil servants can be easily done by train.

Glasgow bids to go greener

from Sunday Herald, 29 June 2008

The Dear Green Place wants to get greener. Glasgow City Council has launched a bid to become one of Europe’s most environmentally-friendly cities.

The council’s leaders are trying to shake off the city’s image as one of the most polluted, most wasteful and most road-obsessed in Scotland by agreeing a series of initiatives aimed at making it more sustainable.

The council has set up a high-level consortium led by Strathclyde University to examine every aspect of life in the city. The objective is “to position Glasgow as one of Europe’s most sustainable cities within five to ten years”.

The green leaders who chose to drive

from Sunday Herald, 22 June 2008

They urge everyone else to leave their cars at home to help save the planet, then they jump into theirs.

The board members of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) made five times more journeys by car than by train last year - and claimed ten times more in expenses for them.