NEWS RELEASE
29 April 2005
FORTH ROAD BRIDGE DECISION CONDEMNED
Groups call for Transport Minister to act decisively
Friends of the Earth and TRANSform Scotland Press Release
Environment groups today (Friday 29 April) condemned
the decision by the
Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA) to vote in favour of building
a
Second Forth Road Bridge. As the result of the casting vote by the Chairman,
FETA Board members rejected the findings of a public consultation and
the
advice from its officials to pursue an affordable, and more sustainable,
public transport package – going for a new £700 million road
bridge instead.
[1]
Friends of the Earth Scotland's Head of Research, Dr Dan Barlow, said:
"A new road bridge is the last thing that is needed if Scotland is serious about tackling congestion and cutting climate pollution. By choosing to ignore the advice of their own officers and back a new road bridge it has become clear that FETA is totally out of control.
"Now is the time for Transport Minister, Nicol Stephen, to prove he really isn't in the pocket of road-builders as some think and condemn this decision. The Minister and the Scottish Executive need to step in and bring this crazy road-building idea to an halt."
TRANSform Scotland Campaign manager, Colin Howden, said:
"FETA should be wound up immediately, and its powers passed to the new south-east Scotland regional transport partnership. By rejecting its own officials' recommendations to follow the sustainable package of measures, FETA has demonstrated its incompetence as a planning body.
"The Scottish Ministers have failed to show any form of leadership. There is no point in the Scottish Executive persisting with empty rhetoric about sustainable transport when it has consistently, and systematically, failed to take action to achieve this. We are now calling on Transport Minister Nicol Stephen to personally intervene in this issue. It is imperative that we now see the Scottish Executive take action to wind up FETA and provide for its powers to be passed to the forthcoming regional transport partnership."
ENDS
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Lang Banks, Friends of the Earth on 0131 554 9977
Colin Howden, TRANSform Scotland on 0131 467 7714
NOTES TO EDITORS:
[1] The FETA report 'Item No 5 Draft Local Transport Strategy', considered at today's FETA meeting, is available at: http://www.feta.gov.uk/webpages/reports.php.
[2] Friends of the Earth and TRANSform Scotland are members of the campaign coalition the ForthRight Alliance.
Campaign groups who successfully fought a Second Forth Road Bridge proposal ten years ago reformed in August 2004 to fight plans for a new crossing. The ForthRight Alliance 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.
Alliance members currently include: RSPB Scotland, WWF Scotland, TRANSform Scotland, Friends of the Earth Scotland, Friends of the Earth Edinburgh, Friends of the Earth Fife, The Cockburn Association (The Edinburgh Civic Trust), The Civic Trust Scotland, Railfuture Scotland, SPOKES, CRAG, Scottish Wildlife Trust, Edinburgh and Lothians Greenbelt Network, Living Streets Scotland, Scottish Association for Public Transport, SERA Scotland.
Full list: http://www.forthrightalliance.org/members.html
[3] A consultation on FETA's Local Transport Strategy ended in September 2004. http://www.feta.gov.uk/