Stewart Stevenson. Scotland’s inept Transport Minister would appear to have been caught in clumsy double dealing that has accelerated what would have been disappointment in Glasgow to outright rage.
He is reported first to have tried - and not unreasonably, given the escalating costs – to offload the project onto Network Rail. When that was ruled out by the Office of Rail Regulation, he privately slated the project for cancellation as part of the cuts all Government departments must currently make.
That too was – and is – a reasonable decision. Scotland has no power to draw down funds from future spending allocations and cannot in the present circumstances afford projects of this scale, duration and instability of cost.
The damage Stevenson has caused has come from his continuing to assure the Scottish Parliament and Steven Purcell, Leader of Glasgow City Council, that the project was ‘on track’. In the case of Purcell, this assurance was given almost up to the last minute before Cabinet Secretary John Swinney’s announcement in his draft budget speech that the project was being cancelled.
Purcell’s rage was palpable in post-announcement television interviews. While part of his anger is clearly strategic, born both of building a negotiating position to claw back something for Glasgow and from his own political ambitions beyond Glasgow City Council, it was also clearly fuelled by Stevenson’s duplicity.
The Minister’s weakness has played into Purcell’s hands, muddying the water of what was actually a clear and necessary decision. What should have been nothing other than a debate around financial realities is now mired in confusions caused by conduct which attracts no respect from anyone.
Purcell has been freed to sweep all sorts of scattershot ammunition into his sling, none of which bears logical examination but the Government has been backfooted by its Transport Minister and is not yet finding the range of shot on Purcell.
One of the Glasgow City Council Leader’s complaints has been a comparison between Glasgow losing its airport rail link – which has now been authoritatively said not to affect the Commonwealth Games – and Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire Councils being given an additional £3 million as a North Sea oil capital allocation fund.
Aberdeen’s £3 million is a paltry sum set against the minimum cost of the Glasgow Airport Rail Link of £170 million. Purcell’s argument on this is no more than a schoolyard whinge but Stevenson’s folly has left room for the issue to be presented in emotive terms. The impact of this seems to have disconcerted the Government and its supporters.
Purcell’s accusation of Government favouritism in funding – with the Aberdeen area an SNP stronghold – equally bears no examination. If John Swinney was capable of this sort of corruption he would have retained the Glasgow Airport Rail Link to create a cushion for the SNP campaign to take former Speaker Michael Martin’s Glasgow Westminster seat at the forthcoming by-election.
That Swinney did not do this speaks volumes for the probity he brings to the current Government. It may be uncomfortable and indeed unfamiliar for Glasgow which, in all honesty, is used to a different modus operandi – but this is setting new and longed-for standards in proper and objective decision taking in Scottish politics.
If Swinney had taken the old pork-barrell route, we, for one, would have had nothing favourable to say about this Government. It would have been seen to promise nothing other than the mixture as before but with a different label.
The hard facts of the case are that Glasgow City Council receives the highest funding per head of any mainland local authority while Aberdeen gets the lowest (£795 less per head than Glasgow) and Aberdeenshire the 3rd lowest.
Glasgow is centrally important to Scotland but it should not forget that so is Aberdeen. We are aware, from our own contacts with senior oil industry procurement managers, that Aberdeen and Texas are the two respected sources of expertise and equipment in the industry.
Aberdeen is an international centre of excellence for oil and gas engineering, with Aberdeen-based technology companies exporting to projects all over the world. And Aberdonians can be found resourcing projects all over the world.
Scotland cannot afford to be casual with so major a card in its now limited industrial portfolio.
Steven Purcell’s whingeing is misplaced, undignified and self-interested in a city to which serious attention is continually and rightly paid. The Scottish Government needs to hold its nerve and set aside the Transport Minister’s bungling. It has made the right objective decision and it must stand by that at all costs.
I would be very careful about describing the minister who inherited a roads shambles,a ferry shambles and general transport shambles as inept, especially as the incompetents who handed over the shambles are in the front line throwing the brickbats.
I think the Transport Ministry is, with the Health Brief, a huge and difficult task and getting harder as half a century of underspend on Scotland’s transport infrastructure is coinciding with a progressive collapse in the UK’s public finances with all that entails for an already underfunded transport system in Scotland.
You will find Stewart Stevenson very willing to respond to any queries and I think he would be the first to admit that he had no real understanding of the massive extent of the problems he would be facing when he was handed this brief.
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There’s an every ten minute fast bus service from the middle of Glasgow direct to the airport (and back) and also a every ten minute train service from Glasgow Central to Gilmour Street station with a bus waiting to take passengers the four minute drive to the airport. This costs about four quid (or a lot less if you’re on concession).
The proposed development was locally opposed, hugely expensive and completely unnecessary and there are lots of better ways to spend the £400 million.
With the combined Tory Labour Liberal nonsense of forcing the government to continue with a £600 million tram system in Edinburgh which most people didn’t want and which is becoming a fiasco you would have thought that Labour’s Steven Purcell would have learned something. Not so, it appears.
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i havent seen any worthwhile road improvements done on the campbeltown/glasgow road since mrs thatchers government massively improved the loch lomond section .
ive seen plenty of extra government in the form of 129 unnecessary msps a £400 million+ unnecessary parliament building , pensions for councillors , big payoffs for retiring councillors etc . clearly the problem is one of political will
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I could be wrong but I suspect that Kintyre 1′s plaintive call for a return to the good old days of Mrs Thatcher are unlikely to get a seconder far less any credible level of support.
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for Kintyre 1:
The entire section of the A83 through Inveraray has just been completed in the last few years at a cost of well in excess of £2 million. This part of the road was in a shocking state but now it looks and drives great. I was chairman of the local community council at this time and we were well pleased with the work and the manner in which it was carried out. The citizens of Inveraray and District thought this upgrade to the Campbeltown / Glasgow road was very worthwhile, sorry to hear that you don’t agree.
Most of the sections from the town in both directions have now been completed also and the road is now in better condition than it has ever been since I moved to Argyll 10 years ago. Please take the time to drive to our beautiful town, the A83 goes right through the middle, you can’t miss it, it’s the town with a shiny new road and pavements.
Nothing to do with Maggie, I think our current administration get the credit.
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