Aberdeen Bypass legal challenge rejection – Friends of the Earth Scotland comment

Responding to today’s decision at the Court of Session to reject the legal challenge by local community campaigners to the Aberdeen bypass, Stan Blackley, Chief Executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said:

“This massive new road project was always going to be pushed through regardless. The Public Local Inquiry into the road was nobbled by Scottish Ministers, and the whole sorry planning process has been poorly handled from the start, hence the need for the legal challenge in the first place. Objectors have been ignored, local communities brushed aside, and common sense has been nowhere to be seen.

“The Scottish Government seems addicted to tarmac yet has set itself demanding targets to meet with regard to reducing Scotland’s carbon emissions and tackling climate change. This new road will not help them in this regard, and goes to show that Scottish Ministers just aren’t able to see the bigger picture. You can’t cut carbon emissions and tackle climate change while simultaneously building massive new roads that create more traffic and development.

“This huge swathe of tarmac is not a solution for the traffic and transport problems of the north east of Scotland, and will cause more problems than it will solve. It will have negative impacts on air pollution, public health and local communities, and will do little or nothing to combat traffic congestion in the north east. The huge amount of money that has been wasted on this project so far would have been better invested in improving public transport infrastructure and services instead. We can only hope that the Scottish Government, as well as the Aberdeen City and Shire Councils, find this road impossible to fund in the coming years.”

ENDS

For media enquiries, please contact:
 Per Fischer, Press Office, Friends of the Earth Scotland t: 0131 243 2719

Notes to Editors

Friends of the Earth Scotland is
* Scotland’s leading environmental campaigning organisation
* An independent Scottish charity with a network of thousands of supporters and active local groups across Scotland
* Part of the largest grassroots environmental network in the world, uniting over 2 million supporters, 77 national member groups, and some 5,000 local activist groups – covering every continent.
www.foe-scotland.org.uk