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Meeting of the Parliament 13 January 2011

13 Jan 2011 · S3 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Freight Facilities Grants

McMahon, Michael Lab Hamilton North and Bellshill Watch on SPTV

The minister makes a clever argument, but he can see the importance of his strategy—I will come on to that later—and he is undermining his position rather than making me defend the difficulties that he faces.

Twenty-five years ago, in January 1986, the then Tory Government’s economic cutbacks meant that the traditional Lanarkshire steel-making industry began to be closed down. Ravenscraig was under threat, and the 12 Gartcosh to London marchers set off, determined to fight against the plant’s already announced closure. We all know that the steel works are no more, but what is not so well known is the fact that Bellshill, which was one of the worst-affected areas in Lanarkshire, managed to recover by exploiting its geography and transport infrastructure links to become a hub for distribution and logistics. Central to that was the development of the Mossend rail freight terminal and Peter D Stirling Ltd’s Mossend railhead depot.

In November 2003, the then Labour-led Administration announced the award of a freight facilities grant of £650,000 to English, Welsh and Scottish Railway Ltd for additional freight facilities at Mossend to enable the transfer of an express parcel service from road to rail. Other grants were also awarded, such as one for the then Safeway logistics depot in Bellshill to put trailers on to rail for transportation north to Inverness. Mossend was rightly identified by that Labour-led Administration as a strategically important centre for rail freight in Scotland, and those grants reflected the Scottish Executive’s recognition of the site’s significance in enabling the transfer to rail.

However, along comes the Scottish National Party Government and its transport myopia: no Edinburgh airport rail link, no Glasgow airport rail link, delays in the M8 and Raith upgrades, and many more transport projects postponed or shelved.

The Government has the stated policy, in its freight action plan, to make

“the movement of freight through the entire supply chain ... efficient and sustainable”

by pursuing activities that promote modal shift to rail and shipping, and we have heard that

“moving more freight to rail contributed to the Government’s targets of making our transport network ‘smarter’ and ‘greener’.”

Mossend is geared up to play its part in that strategy.

As ASLEF has pointed out, there have been almost £70 million of FFGs in Scotland through 40 grants since 1997, which has taken 30 million lorry miles from Scotland’s roads. By freezing FFGs, the Government is not only undermining its own policies, but is putting the brakes on the regeneration of Lanarkshire and the economic fightback against the cuts that started 25 years ago and which led to the fight to defend our steel industry. I ask the minister to ensure that, this evening, he sends out a signal that we will not have to look back to those days for an example of what has to be done to defend the industries that have grown in Lanarkshire out of the mess that was created so long ago. He has an opportunity to do the right thing. It is asking for money in a tight budgetary period, but the failure to deliver that money will undermine the Government’s own strategy. That is the problem for the minister. He can throw figures around as much as he wants tonight, but it is the Government’s problem—the Government created it and he must solve it.

17:26

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Meeting of the Parliament 13 January 2011

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