CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News

Scottish Budget 2024-25

(12 posts)
  • Started 4 months ago by Morningsider
  • Latest reply from chdot

  1. Morningsider
    Member

    The headline figure for active travel looks good at £220 million. However, drilling down into the figures shows that capital investment increases by just 4.7% (rising from £152.9m to £160.016m). There is a 190.7% increase in revenue support (£12.383m to £36m), although there is a 38.4% reduction in a smaller revenue budget line (£7.3m to £4.5m) that sees the end of the smarter choices, smarter places scheme.

    My concern is that active travel revenue spending was cut mid-year in 2023-24. I think the revenue budget may have been massively hiked for 2024-25 to produce a good headline figure, but with a view to cutting it mid-year. I genuinely can't see how revenue spending could be ramped up to this level.

    I could be wrong, but worth keeping an eye on this.

    Posted 4 months ago #

  2. Morningsider
    Member

    Interesting other snippet - the budget includes £47 million for emergency works to the M8 Woodside viaduct. That is "prior to permanent structural repairs and refurbishment."

    That's 30% of the annual active travel capital budget on propping up one motorway bridge.

    Posted 4 months ago #

  3. Morningsider
    Member

    ...and then there's the commitment in the Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party Draft Shared Policy Programme (the Bute House agreement), that states:

    increase the proportion of Transport Scotland’s budget spent on Active Travel initiatives so that by 2024-25 at least £320m or 10% of the total transport budget will be allocated to active travel.

    That means the active travel budget is £100 million short of what was promised.

    Posted 4 months ago #

  4. Morningsider
    Member

    10% of the transport budget for 2024-25 would be £387.37 million.

    Posted 4 months ago #

  5. Yodhrin
    Member

    Are they seriously arguing that because there's a crappy little shared use path crossing under it, they can use the active travel funding pot to repair a giant <rule2> motorway junction? What an absolute joke.

    Posted 4 months ago #

  6. Arellcat
    Moderator

    My reading of Morningsider's comment was that it was a comparison to illustrate magnitude, rather than implying any direct use of the active travel budget for highway projects.

    Posted 4 months ago #

  7. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.cosla.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0030/46875/COSLA-Budget-Reality-19-Dec-2023.pdf

    Posted 4 months ago #

  8. Morningsider
    Member

    @Yodhrin - apologies for being unclear. Arellcat is correct.

    Posted 4 months ago #

  9. chdot
    Admin

    http://www.spokes.org.uk/2023/12/scotgov-budget-24-25-not-what-transport-needs/

    Posted 4 months ago #

  10. chdot
    Admin

    “

    #ScotBudget

    We have updated our article

    http://www.spokes.org.uk/2023/12/scotgov-budget-24-25-not-what-transport-needs/

    to speculate about where the £30m increase in #activetravel cash comes from

    “

    https://twitter.com/spokeslothian/status/1737551815632126320

    Posted 4 months ago #

  11. Tulyar
    Member

    I have some extensive historical pictures of the steady decay of M8 structures in Glasgow

    The rush to build 50 years ago left some serious legacy problems, not helped by the 0.5m collapse of Phoenix Road (beneath the Woodside Viaduct) as the Pinkston Burn (last on any maps above ground in 1852) has leached away the supporting clay &c - it still floods through Glasgow Subway (since 1896)

    The M8 is practically deserted from 00.00 to 05.00 & hardly busy except at peak times, or when events at Ibrox/SEC attract inefficient use of cars because they were not built to connect with public transport

    Posted 3 months ago #

  12. chdot
    Admin

    “

    The Scottish Budget process draws to a close this afternoon, and it’s a real mixed bag for sustainable transport.

    Active travel investment up, but commitments missed

    The one clear positive is that the budget for active travel continues to rise significantly.

    “

    https://transform.scot/2024/02/27/scottish-budget-2024-5/

    Posted 2 months ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.


Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin