Just heard reports of an extra £10 million for cycling.
anyone know more?
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
Budget
(14 posts)-
Posted 10 years ago #
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Yes. Cab Sec's speech states "Our overall investments in schools, digital infrastructure, energy efficiency, health and transport, including an additional £10 million next year for cycling and walking infrastructure, target projects that will make the economy more productive, with new assets delivering greater energy efficiency and better outcomes."
EDIT - just had a chance to look through the budget documents. Worth noting that the additional £10m still represents a £4m reduction in expenditure on sustainable and active travel budget line from this year (£29m 2014/15, £25m 2015/16). Just that planned expenditure for next year was £15m in last year's budget.
Posted 10 years ago # -
here's the doc if anyone wants to look at it:
Posted 10 years ago # -
"...with the objective of delivering opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish through a balanced approach to delivering growth: strengthening the drivers of growth, and improving sustainability,
cohesion and solidarity."Anybody else intrigued as to how (presumably increasing rates of) growth and sustainability can be compatible?
Posted 10 years ago # -
Growth and sustainability well it would depend on what industry was to grow, if we grew renewal energy, or organic farming, or could have growth over all while growing some low energy industries like harry potter books to choose the silliest sounding example can think then would not be much of an environment impact.
Of course like many things we can claim we are more sustainable by switching from say industry to service industry but if we then buy the manufactured goods from say then far East that are manufactured in less sustainable ways then this overall less sustainable even if because of the parameters the framing of our measurement they appear less so.
The same argument can apply even if we do not consume the good we manufactured and they are replaced by goods consumed elsewhere in a less sustainable way. Then overall the world could be less sustainable even if we claim we are more so by our frame of measurement etc.
The carbon credits are meant to address this but not global does not work.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@Ed1
It's certainly true that the financialised value of the things we do can grow. I could compose poems of increasing value in my head and this could be counted as growth.
However, if the actual mass of physical objects moved around in the economy is to grow at 4% per annum (that's the kind of number you see paraded as reasonable) then in one hundred years' time we will see fifty times as much physical activity as at present. Edinburgh's roads will be hard pushed to stand up to that, though perhaps we'll all be flying around in helicopters by then? (The average Chief Exec will commute by space ship.)
The current stock of cultiveable topsoil is diminishing, we've changed the composition of the atmosphere and the pH of the sea is going south.
Posted 10 years ago # -
statement here from spokes:
http://www.spokes.org.uk/wordpress/2014/10/budget-confusion-yet-again/summary:
Funding for Active Travel in 2015/16 is likely to be static or slightly lower compared to 14/15.
The Scottish Government’s budget is as confused as ever on active travel funding – despite repeated calls by the Scottish Parliament ICI Committee and its predecessors for clarity.At current levels of funding the government has no hope whatsoever of reaching its ambition of 10% of all trips by bike in 2020 (compared to 1%-2% now).
Not to be entirely negative, active travel funding in both 14/15 and 15/16 is noticeably higher than in earlier years.
However, whilst we had hoped that 14/15 marked the start of an ongoing rise and drive to reach the 2020 ambition, it looks more like 14/15 was a peak or at best the start of a plateau in investment.
Posted 10 years ago # -
and some thoughts from POp.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Let's face it, governments are masters of the art of double-announcing funding or as in this case announcing 'extra' funding which it turns out they had only just cut (without announcement, obviously).
It's in the same style of psychological con trick as the endless sales by furniture sellers, convincing you that you're getting a good 'deal'.
Either way, £10m is risable; a rounding error.
Certainly not a serious commitment to active travel.
Posted 10 years ago # -
"balanced approach to delivering growth: strengthening the drivers of growth, and improving sustainability"
Well apart from the internal contradictions in that (as discussed above) I continue to fail to understand how the SNP Government continues to fail to understand how the things it imagines it's talking about - 'knowledge economies', 'biotechnologies' ("digital infrastructure, energy efficiency, health and transport") - are the sort of businesses that employ (or try to attract) the sort of people who have an interest in 'active travel'.
In addition a Government that talks about "fairness" and "poverty" and "The NHS" STILL 'doesn't get it' - in spite of the best efforts of Spokes, PoP etc. etc.
WHY WHY WHY???
Posted 10 years ago # -
Perhaps it's empty rhetoric. A bit like that used in the U No Wot.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@chdot, I'll translate for non-SNP types:
"fairness" = Two cars per household and dual carriageway bypasses for every village.
"poverty" = Not being able to afford even one car; cyclists; pedestrians; bus passengers.
"The NHS" = The place to go after folk become fat and ill from sitting in their two cars most of their lives.
Simple, really. How can you "fail to understand"?
Posted 10 years ago # -
According to the Beeb:
"The new ScotRail franchise, which begins in April 2015, will see a £46m cut in support for rail services, leaving a pot of £331m"
How does that square with the ambitious new franchise proposals from Abellio? Does it mean they can deliver all that more cheaply than the somewhat underwhelming service provided by First?
Maybe they are playing the long game, taking a punt on passenger numbers rising over seven to ten years (and thus income)?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-29536022
Posted 10 years ago # -
@crowriver
"How can you "fail to understand"?"
Indeed, indeed. I find myself increasingly struggling to understand things since I stopped watching broadcast television. I now have very little idea what it is I'm supposed to want by way of cars. Drifting into the realm of the hippy, despite very much working for The Man.
The health versus healthcare thing was quite good fun during The Upheaval. It was a new and welcome idea to many people.
Posted 10 years ago #
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