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Subject: Is Aberdeen city council throwing in the towel on sustainable transport ?

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MikeDunbar
Posts:1
11 Aug 2007 14:32:41 Alert 
Aberdeen City Council is reported as considering a change of use for the Park & Ride to a halt for the use of Travellers. Many will see this as a sign that the council giving up on Sustainable Transport Policy and forcing Park & Ride users back on to the clogged roads into the city. A perceived threat to personal and vehicle security has already resulted in a drop in P&R users since a camp was set up last week - at the suggestion of council representatives according to at least one traveller. Those bus users who did remain lost the use of facilities when the council closed the waiting room following the arrival of the travellers. Some may even see it as the long expected council revenge for Kingswells' rejection of a publicly financed football stadium at Bellfield Farm which the council approved in 2001/02. Nestrans, the transport partnership for Aberdeen city and shire, as recently as March published a regional transport strategy whose key issues include increasing public transport usage, reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and pollutants and changing travel behaviour. It claims to have recognised that transport has a key role to play in sustaining economic growth in the area and in developing a strong city centre. All of those objectives rely on expanding the use of public transport. Once upon a time Aberdeen and its surrounding areas was quite well served by public rail services from Kintore to Ballater. Successive transport policies pursued since then have seen this infrastructure destroyed, apparently in the name of progress. This makes Aberdeen particularly dependent on roads. Of wider significance may be the message which this sends out to the Scottish Executive as far as the still embryonic Western Peripheral Route is concerned. The new SNP led administration is on record as harbouring concerns about value for money in public projects and has already called into question major projects around Edinburgh. If Aberdeen city council is indicating at this early stage that it will simply fill up the WPR by forcing public transport users back into cars then the executive may very well get the justification it needs to review the entire proposal. A lack of long term strategy for the treatment of travellers is creating extreme difficulties for the travelling community and permanent residents alike. Apparently iniquitous anomalies are not being satisfactorily explained to the public. Residents of many areas of the city are annually paying £2600 and more in council tax for what appears to be little other than having their bins emptied. The perception is that another section of the community enjoys a rapid response, on-demand system from the council free of charge. The council needs to be open and inclusive to all sections of the community if we are to live in harmony. It may well grossly simplify the issue to suggest that buying a camper van avoids the tedium of council tax but it certainly seems that way to many. Travellers need the opportunity to pursue the lifestyle they choose without being made to feel like outcasts and fair minded people recognise that. It should not be beyond the wit of the city council to arrive at a sustainable policy for travellers which does not require the binning of sustainable transport measures.
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Forums > Kingswells Forum > General Banter > Is Aberdeen city council throwing in the towel on sustainable transport ?


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