Views
Investment is needed in city transport - for The Inverness Courier
Over the last few weeks, transport issues affecting the Highland capital have been on the agenda at all levels of government. There are serious issues that need to be overcome if we are to have the road, rail, and air links that we need to continue to be the UK’s fastest growing City.
The European Union’s agreement with the United States to open up transatlantic air travel poses a serious threat to our vital air links to London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports – which carry so many tourists and business people, as well as your local MP! This is because the airlines will be able to make more profit out of the slots they hold at these 2 airports from new transatlantic routes than flights to Inverness.
If Inverness were to lose its links to Heathrow and Gatwick real economic damage would be caused as tourists and businesses alike would lose their ability to link directly to onward international flights. I have asked the Transport Secretary to apply a public service obligation to protect these vital routes, but so far the UK government will not play ball. I will keep fighting their ‘wait and see’ approach.
A similarly lackadaisical approach seems to characterise the new Highland Council administration’s attitude to making progress on the Inverness Trunk Road Link. Last year, our ‘speed up the bypass’ campaign received the support of large numbers of Inverness residents fed up with the slow progress and HITRANS responded by aiming to get the first phase of work completed by 2011.
There are many more steps to the process, and the ball is in Highland Council’s court for the moment. There are hard-working officials in the council’s transport service who know what needs to be done, but they also need to know that this project is a top priority for the council too. A commitment to getting the various agreements in place by the end of 2010 does not, I believe, show the necessary sense of urgency and so once again we will need to campaign to show how much the people of Inverness want to ‘speed up the bypass.’
The trunk road link would relieve congestion and join the A9, A96 and A82. Much has been said about the A9 in recent weeks, and I welcome the commitment made by the new transport minister to progressively upgrade our main road link to the central belt. I hope that we can work together on an all-party basis to make that happen and to deliver the improvements to the A96 that are desperately needed – beyond the upgrade to the airport initiated by Tavish Scott.
In fact, we will have to wait until the end of next year to see what the new government proposes. The first minister’s spokesman said the A9 was ‘not an immediate priority’, but to the people of the Highlands it certainly is. In the meantime, the package of progressive improvements put in place by the previous Executive will continue.
Child Support Reform
At long last, the government has brought forward plans to reform the Child Support Agency. The CSA has been beset by problems since its launch 13 years ago, and failed to get a total of £3.5 billion of maintenance to the children who so desperately need it. Hundreds of local families are still waiting for payments, while other are tangled in the bureaucracy and unfairness of the current system.
The government’s reforms tinker at the edges, but don’t get to the heart of what needs to be done to create a system like the one in Australia that collects 8 times more maintenance than we do.
The Government should be concentrating on efficiently getting money to the families they are currently failing, instead of headline-grabbing gimmicks. It is a disgrace that even this very modest reform will take 6 years to implement. I would rather see the collections function of the CSA should be moved to the Treasury, which is far better placed to deduct earnings from those refusing to pay. That would work better for the children and make irresponsible absent parents face up to their duties.
Posted on: 19/06/2007
