20 January 2011
Ringfenced budget for sustainable transport saved in Scottish Budget
Transform Scotland are pleased to see some progress on sustainable transport in the Parliament's
Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change (TICC) Committee report on the Scottish Budget.
Colin Howden, Director of Transform Scotland, said:
"It's good to see the transport committee making strong recommendations to retain both the Cycling, Walking and Safer Streets (CWSS) and Freight Facilities Grants (FFG) scheme. Given that John Swinney has written to the transport committee to say that ring-fencing of the CWSS scheme would be retained, it's looking good for this vital fund to be kept in place.
"The TICC Committee refers to the lobby by sustainable transport groups calling for the CWSS to be retained, so it's pleasing to see that we appear to have been successful in persuading the Government to retain the CWSS.
"However, it's disappointing that the TICC Committee was unable to say anything critical about the £2.3 billion that the Government intends to squander on an unnecessary Second Forth Road Bridge."The
Finance Committee report is however not in itself helpful to the prospects for sustainable transport. It doesn't mention the TICC Committee report at all, while, amongst other things, it specifically supports the Local Government and Communities Committee recommendation to ditch the Government's retail levy proposal. In fact, one of the few mentions of transport is to refer to transport infrastructure as having "perceived importance of certain aspects of capital spending to economic growth". Finally, the Finance Committee makes no reference whatsoever to climate change – which is a fairly disturbing development.