from Sunday Herald, 28 November 2010
Ministers have come under fire for making a major U-turn in Scotland’s transport policy by ditching plans to curb cars while cutting funding for cycling and getting lorries off the road.
Experts and environmentalists accuse the Scottish government of abandoning attempts to reduce the growing clouds of climate pollution spewed into the atmosphere by vehicle engines. Some decisions have been “perverse”, they say.
A report leaked to the Sunday Herald in September revealed that ministers were thinking of introducing a £300-a-year workplace parking charge, plus a 50% increase in street parking fees. A reduction in the speed limits from 70mph to 60mph, and a five-pence-per-kilometre road-pricing scheme, were also mooted.
But the suggestions prompted howls of rage from businesses and the car lobby, and as a result they have all now been quietly dropped. They were omitted from the latest version of the report published along with the budget earlier this month.
The change of heart has been criticised by Dr Jillian Anable , an expert from the Centre for Transport Research at the University of Aberdeen who helped advise the government. The policies put forward by ministers do not match up to the targets they have set to cut climate pollution, she argued.
“Transport is the only sector where emissions are higher now than in 1990, but yet again, the transport sector is in danger of not pulling its weight,” she said.
According to Anable, higher parking charges and lower speed limits were needed to make sure that emissions from cars decreased. “Walking and cycling infrastructure is grossly underfunded,” she added.
Transport campaigners fear that public investment in cycling and other “active travel” will also suffer as a result of the Scottish government’s new budget proposals. The future of a £9 million “cycling, walking and safer streets” fund is looking uncertain.
John Lauder, the director of the cycling charity, Sustrans Scotland, accused ministers of shifting money away from supporting walking and cycling to electric cars. This would not encourage active travel and “could set Scotland back years”, he warned.
Colin Howden, the director of the sustainable transport campaign, Transform Scotland, criticised ministers for backing away from decisive action. “Without action on transport, there is little hope of Scotland meeting its legal requirements under the Climate Change Act,” he said.
In addition, it has become clear that grants worth about £7 million a year to help shift freight from lorries onto the railways are to be axed. The grants have taken 33 million lorry miles off Scottish roads since 1997.
This decision was attacked as “short-sighted and perverse” by David Spaven, a rail freight consultant in Edinburgh. It meant that schemes designed to take trucks off the A9, A77 and A82 would not go ahead, he said. “I can’t imagine car drivers being happy about that.”
Dr Richard Dixon, the director of WWF Scotland, accused the Scottish Nationalist government of being too influenced by the roads lobby. “The SNP's transport policy has always been to have more of everything,” he said.
“But now that times are tough we are seeing the roads agenda dominate at the expense of cycling, walking and keeping freight on the rails.” It was “particularly disappointing” that parking charges and reduced speed limits had been dropped, he said.
The Scottish government said that it had made clear in its discussions with stakeholders that some of the ideas on curbing car use had just been put forward for debate. Climate targets could be met without them, insisted a spokeswoman for Transport Scotland.
“Parliament is now scrutinising the draft report on proposals and policies, alongside the draft budget, and has the opportunity to offer views on the proposals, policies and funding options,” she added.
The spokeswoman also argued that that the government was continuing to invest in cycling through the sustainable and active travel programme. “In addition, investment in cycling has been increasing year on year for the last three years and by nearly 50% in the last year alone,” she said.
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