NEWS RELEASE
23 September 2004
LEADING WILDLIFE GROUPS CONDEMN NEW ROAD BRIDGE PLANS
Scotland's leading environment and conservation groups have joined the fight against new plans to build an "environmentally-destructive" Second Forth Road Bridge. RSPB Scotland, Scottish Wildlife Trust, WWF Scotland, Scottish Civic Trust and the National Trust for Scotland all believe that any new road bridge would cause significant environmental damage and that alternative, more sustainable options exist.
The groups - which together have a combined membership of over 300,000 - have decided to join the ForthRight Alliance - a coalition set up in response to the Forth Estuary Transport Authority's (FETA) decision to include a second Forth road bridge option in its draft transport strategy. A consultation into the options closes at the end of September.
Lloyd
Austin, Head of Policy Operations at RSPB Scotland said:
"This proposal flies in the face of our efforts to reduce traffic pollution
to help protect society from the growing problem of climate change. It
also
puts at risk the specially protected birds on the Firth of Forth".
SWT's
Policy & Campaigns Officer, Stuart Hay, said:
"It's clear that whatever route the bridge takes it will damage or destroy
a
number of important wildlife sites deemed worthy of protection and
negatively affect the sensitive environment around the Forth estuary.
"The spurious arguments for another bridge did not stack up in the 1990s and certainly don't stack up now. This should be evident given increasing concerns about the need to conserve biodiversity and tackle climate change. Such a destructive project is both wholly unnecessary and incompatible with high level government commitments to conserve and enhance Scotland's natural heritage."
WWF Scotland's Head of Policy, Dr Richard Dixon, said:
"WWF Scotland remain strongly opposed to the construction of a second
Forth Road Bridge. A new bridge would be a disaster for climate change
emissions, would divert money that should be spent on bringing public
transport into the 21st century and would promote unsustainable commuter
lifestyles. FETA should get serious about improving public transport
across the existing bridge instead of wasting any time considering
squandering money on this dinosaur scheme."
Convener of the ForthRight
Alliance and Vice Chairman of the Cockburn Association, Bill Cantley said:
"We welcome the support of these major conservation groups. A Second Forth
Road Bridge would have wide reaching impacts and damage to wildlife and
habitats would only be the beginning. FETA should take notice of the
growing
national opposition and ditch their plans for a new road bridge.
That way we
can begin to deal with the real issue of reducing overall traffic
levels. We
fully support the sustainable, non-road bridge, alternative - 'Package
3'".
MEDIA CONTACTS:
David McDonald, (ForthRight Alliance) Cockburn Association, 0131
557 8686
RSPB Scotland on 0131 311 6536 or 07736 722181
Scottish Wildlife Trust on 0131 312 7765
WWF Scotland on 01887 820449
NTS on 0131 243 9384
NOTES TO EDITORS:
[1] Campaign groups who successfully fought a Second Forth Road Bridge proposal ten years ago have reformed to fight plans for a new crossing. The ForthRight Alliance have reformed in response to the Forth Estuary Transport Authority's (FETA) decision to include a Second Forth Road Bridge option in its transport strategy. The campaigners propose that instead of an additional road crossing FETA should be pursuing sustainable transport alternatives.
The groups back an alternative set of options ('Package 3') that would reduce traffic levels but not involve building a second Forth road bridge. The Alliance members also include the Cockburn Association, Friends of the Earth Scotland and TRANSform Scotland.
Full list: http://www.forthrightalliance.org/members.html
[2] A consultation on FETA's Local Transport Strategy ends on 30th September. http://www.feta.gov.uk/