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Call for regional funding for transport |
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Monday, 25 February 2008 |
One of Scotland’s regional transport partnerships (RTPs) has said it is to approach the Scottish Government to press the case for regional transport funding.
Dave Duthie, the director of HITRANS, the Highlands and Islands regional transport partnership, has told Holyrood that the partnership will approach the Scottish Government in response to the recent changes in the funding of RTPs that saw their funding transferred from central to local government, and being non-ring-fenced.
Duthie said that he sees three tiers of investment – the wholly national, the wholly local and the regional.
“There’s a bit in the middle where things have a regional significance, and have a national transport requirement, but perhaps aren’t being picked up by the Strategic Transport Projects review. [It] doesn’t pick up things like development of real-time information, where the chances are the councils are not going to be able to find the level of investment to deliver those projects that are strategic beyond the local council area, and the challenge is to find the right level for doing that.
“We will be looking at that and it is likely we will be going back to government to say that in terms of the national priorities and national funding, we think there is perhaps a case not simply to look at the corridors identified within the strategic transport projects review, but also a wider context of regional transport that adds to the national transport system at a strategic level.
“That’s something that I think we will be focusing on, and the other RTPs might wish to do that as well, with regards to their responses to the Government, with regards to how the regional transport partnership can help the Government to deliver its priority of growing the Scottish economy.”
He added: “It’s not a case that the RTPs are looking for money, what the RTPs are looking for is investment in projects and services in the region that add value to the region and grow the economy.”
He pointed to future projects of similar regional importance as the Glasgow Underground or the Edinburgh trams and said there was a need to “find a method to allow those to happen, because who’s to say the priority for those investments are not greater perhaps than some of the investment on strategic corridors that we identify through the Strategic Transport Projects Review”.
But he added that “we see ourselves not only as a partnership of the councils but also working with national agencies. We don’t see ourselves as specifically a delivery body, what we see is we will enable that work to be done.”
However, he added that “John Swinney, I think, appreciates the benefit of having the RTPs for moving transport forward in the best possible way, and to deliver a better Scotland.”
Alison McInnes, the Liberal Democrats’ transport spokesperson and former chair of Nestrans, the North East of Scotland regional transport partnership, said that she would welcome such a move.
She said: “I do think that direct capital funding to the RTPs is the most effective way of delivering regional projects and I was disappointed that the Government disaggregated that from the budget. John Swinney himself has said that there needs to be clear governance in transport projects, and I just think they’ve made everything unduly complicated. I would certainly support a re-examination of that particular decision.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Following the recent Scottish Budget settlement, and the Concordat signed between the Scottish Government and COSLA, the Scottish Government will be providing local government in Scotland with record levels of funding over the period covered by the spending review 2008-11.
“The vast majority of this funding, including the former Regional Transport Partnership Capital and the Public Transport Fund are to be spent by 31 March 2008, and funding will now be provided to councils by means of a block grant. It will be the responsibility of each local authority and RTP to allocate the total financial resources available to it on the basis of local needs and priorities.
“The Scottish Government has and will continue to engage with HITRANS and its constituent authorities during the transition to the new arrangements.”
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