NEWS RELEASE
17 April 2005
PLANS FOR SECOND FORTH ROAD BRIDGE TO BE 'SHELVED'
Groups welcome news, but warn campaign is not over
Campaigners against plans for a second Forth road bridge today (17 April) welcomed reports that plans for a second road crossing could be 'shelved'. [1] Documents obtained by a Sunday newspaper under the Freedom of Information Act show that, following comments by the Scottish Executive, the Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA) has had to revise its transport strategy downgrading the priority given to any new road bridge.
Despite the news, members of the ForthRight Alliance [2] warned that until plans for a new road bridge were fully dropped by FETA that they would not end their campaign for sustainable transport alternatives.
Dan Barlow of Friends of the Earth Scotland (a member of the ForthRight Alliance) said:
"A second Forth Road Bridge would be the most expensive and least sustainable option - increasing traffic and exacerbating pollution. When FETA comes to vote on this issue, later this year, it should drop the road bridge option and back the sustainable alternatives instead. Until then, our campaign will continue.
"It's simply not acceptable for local authorities to cater for endless growth in car use. On this occasion, the Executive has rightly set itself targets for reducing traffic levels and commitments to tackle climate change. It's about time that Scottish politicians followed through on the succession of green transport policy statements with some decisions that would benefit rather than damage the environment."
Colin Howden of TRANSform Scotland (a member of the ForthRight Alliance) said:
"We welcome the Scottish Executive's opinion that FETA's initial enthusiasm for a new road bridge was misplaced and premature. Building a second Forth road bridge would be neither environmentally sustainable nor a sensible use of scarce public funds.
"We need to see FETA deliver the sustainable elements of Option 3 before any work goes into planning for building a new road bridge. FETA faces many challenges in delivering these public transport and traffic management measures and it should concentrate on these before coming up with further unsustainable road-building plans."
ENDS
MEDIA CONTACTS:
David McDonald, (ForthRight Alliance) Cockburn Association,
0131 557 8686
Lang Banks, Friends of the Earth on 0131 554 9977
Colin Howden, TRANSform Scotland on 0131 467 7714
NOTES TO EDITORS:
[1] £700m plan for second Forth road bridge shelved, Sunday Herald. p4 17 April 2005. This article is not online yet: http://www.sundayherald.com
[2] 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/