Views
Disappointment from looking beyond the hype and spin - for The Inverness Courier
THESE days government announcements more often than not turn out to be a lot less than they seem. It pays to ignore the spin and the headlines on day one, and read the small print and the detail. Disappointment almost always follows.
So it was last week at the Queen's Speech. The pomp and ceremony could not disguise a thin government programme of only 14 bills, the fewest for over a decade. The prime minister knew that too: that's why he tried to pull a rabbit out of the hat on the day – announcing additional protection for people who could face a home repossession.
It wasn't in the Queen's Speech, but it did make the following day's headlines. Sadly for the thousands of people already behind with their mortgage payments, and the thousands more living in fear of unemployment, it turned out to be a lot less than it seemed, with only 8,000 people estimated to benefit. For those people, of course, this could be a lifeline – but it is very far from the answer to the housing crisis that ministers wanted us to believe.
Sadly, the Scottish government seems to be trying to adopt the New Labour way of doing these things. Last week's Strategic Transport Projects Review was a very long-awaited event that we hoped would give some certainty about future investment in vital rail and road projects in the Highlands.
Reading the over 3000 pages of documentation (I still haven't managed to get through it all), it is clear that the proposals were given to ministers nearly six months ago and they seem to have spent that time trying to find ways to match limited financial resources with unlimited promises made at election time.
By stretching what was supposed to be a five-year plan over a 20 year period, vague and uncosted commitments have been made with almost no detail about when they will be delivered and how they will be paid for.
So what seemed like immediate concrete commitments in the headlines, seem like something rather less on reflection.
Take the A9, for example. I am glad that ministers have stuck by their promise on dualling that key link between the Highlands and the central belt. They have received very strong representations from all sides that this is the right thing to do.
One of the strongest was from HITRANS, which argued that the greatest economic benefit would flow from dualling the stretch of road between Kingussie and Aviemore.
Very surprisingly, this has been ignored and future dualling of the A9 in the Highlands has been relegated to a vague 'phase 2' which it is to be assumed means work will take place sometime between the years 2022 and 2032. My one-year-old daughter will have completed her university education before then!
This is not what most people will have assumed when they see the 'A9 to be dualled' headlines. So we will have to keep campaigning very hard indeed to make these vague commitments become reality.
Even more disappointing was the conclusion of the review for the future of Inverness.
By completely refusing to support the completion of the Inverness trunk road link from the A9 to the A82, the Scottish government have taken a decision that will cause real and long-term economic harm to our city. It beggars belief that this plan, which has widespread economic and road safety benefits, should have been ditched by ministers.
We simply cannot let this be an end to the matter. Local people have shown huge support for this road to be built. The congestion in our city that is building every year will simply get worse. Potential development to the west will be stifled without appropriate connections to the A82.
Highland Council simply does not have the money to do it by itself, though it has made good progress on designs and public consultation.
With so many vague and imprecisely costed ideas in the government's plans, money is likely to be underspent at the end of each year. We must make sure our project is top of the list for any surplus funds.
The Scottish government must be left in no doubt that this route is important to the people of Inverness.
Posted on: 16/12/2008
