Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 22 May 2013
22 May 2013 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Haudagain Roundabout
The member is aware that Aberdeen City Council proposes a third Don crossing. As I have said, the council stands ready to move forward with this work now and to enable work to commence on the improvements at the Haudagain well in advance of the Scottish Government’s current plans.
With the right co-operation from ministers on issues such as compensation orders and with key decisions taken now, the relocation of residents that is required by the plan can take place at an appropriate and sensitive pace. Even the previous SNP council said in 2008 that that work could be done within three years. For the SNP to suggest that we can be a separate nation years before we can resolve the rehousing of residents who will be affected by the Haudagain improvements is patent nonsense.
Last week Barney Crockett, Labour’s leader of the administration in Aberdeen City Council, announced that the city council was moving forward now with plans to link Dyce Drive to the A96 trunk road, with the improvements to be completed in 2015. That project will significantly improve surface access to the airport and to areas in the north of the city, where significant new office developments for businesses in Aberdeen are being developed.
Today, we call on the Scottish Government to show the same kind of initiative with the Haudagain roundabout and not to subject motorists and businesses in Aberdeen to more years of traffic congestion misery. We ask ministers to think again and work with the council to give the green light to this project and to take the actions required to get it under way.
If ministers fail to do that, that will mean not only years more of traffic jams, but years more of tens of millions of pounds of costs to our local economy and local businesses. That is entirely avoidable. Not acting now would mean that ministers would have failed to listen not only to the local councils, but to local businesses and local people. It is time for ministers and the SNP to listen and think again about their refusal to give the work at the Haudagain roundabout the priority that it needs, otherwise the charge will justly be levelled at the SNP that Aberdeen is its forgotten city. Aberdeen deserves better than that. We all agree that the city is vital to the whole of the Scottish economy. That is why I ask members to support our call for immediate action at Haudagain.
I move,
That the Parliament notes the ongoing concerns expressed in the north east over the continuing chronic congestion at the junction of the A90 and A96 trunk roads at the Haudagain roundabout; believes that, as it is the energy capital of Europe, Aberdeen requires a more efficient and effective transport network; recognises the views expressed by local business organisations, Aberdeen airport and local authorities that the traffic problems at the roundabout are detrimental to the local economy and cost it in the region of £15 to £30 million a year; notes that, although a feasibility study on improvements at the roundabout was commissioned by the former Scottish Executive and that Scottish Transport appraisal guidance was published in 2008, under current Scottish Government plans, work on the improvements will not begin until 2018 at the earliest and the Scottish Government has given no formal assurance that it will carry out this work after the completion of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route, when the Haudagain junction is no longer a Scottish Government responsibility; congratulates Aberdeen City Council on its announcement that it is investing in a £5 million project to link Dyce Drive to the A96 trunk road, which will be completed in 2015 and significantly improve surface access to the airport; believes that the Scottish Government should show the same urgency with work at the Haudagain roundabout, and calls on ministers to commence significant work on the project immediately so that road users in the city do not have to wait until the end of the decade for these much-needed improvements at the roundabout to be completed.
14:50
With the right co-operation from ministers on issues such as compensation orders and with key decisions taken now, the relocation of residents that is required by the plan can take place at an appropriate and sensitive pace. Even the previous SNP council said in 2008 that that work could be done within three years. For the SNP to suggest that we can be a separate nation years before we can resolve the rehousing of residents who will be affected by the Haudagain improvements is patent nonsense.
Last week Barney Crockett, Labour’s leader of the administration in Aberdeen City Council, announced that the city council was moving forward now with plans to link Dyce Drive to the A96 trunk road, with the improvements to be completed in 2015. That project will significantly improve surface access to the airport and to areas in the north of the city, where significant new office developments for businesses in Aberdeen are being developed.
Today, we call on the Scottish Government to show the same kind of initiative with the Haudagain roundabout and not to subject motorists and businesses in Aberdeen to more years of traffic congestion misery. We ask ministers to think again and work with the council to give the green light to this project and to take the actions required to get it under way.
If ministers fail to do that, that will mean not only years more of traffic jams, but years more of tens of millions of pounds of costs to our local economy and local businesses. That is entirely avoidable. Not acting now would mean that ministers would have failed to listen not only to the local councils, but to local businesses and local people. It is time for ministers and the SNP to listen and think again about their refusal to give the work at the Haudagain roundabout the priority that it needs, otherwise the charge will justly be levelled at the SNP that Aberdeen is its forgotten city. Aberdeen deserves better than that. We all agree that the city is vital to the whole of the Scottish economy. That is why I ask members to support our call for immediate action at Haudagain.
I move,
That the Parliament notes the ongoing concerns expressed in the north east over the continuing chronic congestion at the junction of the A90 and A96 trunk roads at the Haudagain roundabout; believes that, as it is the energy capital of Europe, Aberdeen requires a more efficient and effective transport network; recognises the views expressed by local business organisations, Aberdeen airport and local authorities that the traffic problems at the roundabout are detrimental to the local economy and cost it in the region of £15 to £30 million a year; notes that, although a feasibility study on improvements at the roundabout was commissioned by the former Scottish Executive and that Scottish Transport appraisal guidance was published in 2008, under current Scottish Government plans, work on the improvements will not begin until 2018 at the earliest and the Scottish Government has given no formal assurance that it will carry out this work after the completion of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route, when the Haudagain junction is no longer a Scottish Government responsibility; congratulates Aberdeen City Council on its announcement that it is investing in a £5 million project to link Dyce Drive to the A96 trunk road, which will be completed in 2015 and significantly improve surface access to the airport; believes that the Scottish Government should show the same urgency with work at the Haudagain roundabout, and calls on ministers to commence significant work on the project immediately so that road users in the city do not have to wait until the end of the decade for these much-needed improvements at the roundabout to be completed.
14:50
In the same item of business
The Deputy Presiding Officer (John Scott)
Con
The next item of business is a debate on motion S4M-06657, in the name of Richard Baker, on immediate action at the Haudagain roundabout.14:40
Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
I am pleased that we have been able to bring forward in Labour business the issue of tackling congestion at the Haudagain roundabout, because it is a vital t...
Dennis Robertson (Aberdeenshire West) (SNP)
SNP
I thank the member very much for taking an intervention on that point. Does he accept that the Aberdeen western peripheral route is of great significance to ...
Richard Baker
Lab
Of course; I am happy to accept that point. We all agree on the importance of the AWPR but, through today’s debate, we want to move the Haudagain roundabout ...
Kevin Stewart (Aberdeen Central) (SNP)
SNP
What will happen to traffic to the airport if Mr Baker’s request for immediate action is granted? If the Haudagain is redone, we will have chaos on the roads...
Richard Baker
Lab
That is both a poor excuse and a gross misrepresentation of the issue. I will specifically address the ludicrous press release that Mr Stewart issued yesterd...
Kevin Stewart
SNP
Will the member give way?
Richard Baker
Lab
I am sure that Mr Stewart will want to speak later, so he will have his chance then.Despite the Scottish Government’s verbal assurances that it will pay for ...
Bruce Crawford (Stirling) (SNP)
SNP
I have been listening carefully to Mr Baker. Will he confirm whether Labour is committed to the construction of a third Don crossing any time in the near fut...
Richard Baker
Lab
The member is aware that Aberdeen City Council proposes a third Don crossing. As I have said, the council stands ready to move forward with this work now and...
The Minister for Transport and Veterans (Keith Brown)
SNP
The Scottish Government recognises, of course, the important contribution that Aberdeen and the north-east make to our wider economy and that an effective tr...
Richard Baker
Lab
So when Alex Neil and John Swinney specifically called for immediate action more than five years ago, they were wrong.
Keith Brown
SNP
Perhaps Richard Baker has forgotten that there has been a protracted legal challenge on the AWPR. Nestrans and the council that he has lauded have said a num...
Lewis Macdonald (North East Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
Will the minister take an intervention?
Keith Brown
SNP
No. I want to make some progress.The funding of the regeneration proposal for the Middlefield area is a matter for Aberdeen City Council, but Transport Scotl...
Lewis Macdonald
Lab
Will the minister take an intervention?
Keith Brown
SNP
I will do so in just a second.The forthcoming by-election and Labour’s need for a fig leaf to hide every major construction project that it has delayed expla...
Lewis Macdonald
Lab
I am grateful to the minister for giving way, even if he has done so when I was not seeking to intervene.Will the minister confirm that the STAG report actua...
Keith Brown
SNP
I think that I have just said what is being done. We have employed design consultants to work on the design at this early stage in order that we can be ready...
Alex Johnstone (North East Scotland) (Con)
Con
It is wonderful what a by-election will do to focus Parliament on issues that are important to the people of Aberdeen, and the Aberdeen Donside by-election i...
Keith Brown
SNP
Will the member give way?
Alex Johnstone
Con
The commitment that I need from the minister today—I will give way if he is willing to give it—is that he will take action so that the Haudagain roundabout p...
Keith Brown
SNP
If the member had listened to what I said, he would have heard me say that we have started on the design work, which is the necessary first step. Over and ab...
Alex Johnstone
Con
The minister’s intervention takes us into an area that I need to talk about, which is the time that projects take.The minister went through a list of project...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
Con
We are tight for time, so members must stick to four-minute speeches.15:02
Kevin Stewart (Aberdeen Central) (SNP)
SNP
I have talked a lot in the Parliament recently about common sense—“gumption” is the word that we use in the north-east. Today, we see mair gimmick than gumpt...
Lewis Macdonald (North East Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
Although Kevin Stewart offered to move on from the knockabout, he went on to produce one of the most comical speeches that I have heard. He asked a number of...
Stewart Stevenson (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP)
SNP
No.
Lewis Macdonald
Lab
The Haudagain is part of the trunk road network and therefore the Scottish Government’s responsibility.I heard a little heckling from a sedentary position. I...
Bruce Crawford
SNP
Will work at the Haudagain roundabout cause extra congestion around the city?