Anyone who lives in or has to drive through Aberdeen knows how congested the city is. The main Edinburgh – Fraserburgh trunk road is routed along Anderson Drive, built in the 1940s, and every single car and lorry heading from the north to the south, and vice versa, has to stop for no fewer than 14 roundabouts, not to mention the umpteen sets of traffic lights also dotted along the road. Every one of those vehicles belches out fumes, when they should be zipping along a 21st century road instead.
The Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route, planned for decades, offers a sensible solution to this problem. While it won’t solve all the congestion in Aberdeen, it will remove a huge amount of through traffic from the city’s streets, making things much more pleasant for the many drivers heading to places like Stonehaven, Banchory, Peterculter, Kingswells, Westhill, Inverurie, Dyce, Ellon, Peterhead, Fraserburgh and everywhere in between – as well as the people who live along the current roads and have to put up with dire traffic day in, day out.
Unfortunately, construction of the Aberdeen bypass has been held up by a group of individuals known as “Road Sense”. They oppose the building of the AWPR on the current route and argue that the public inquiry was flawed. They lodged an appeal to the Court of Session in early 2011 – paid for, it might be noted, by the taxpayer – and the court ruled in August 2011 that the public inquiry was valid, and that the scheme should go ahead.
This should have been the end of the matter – Transport Scotland should now have been in the process of appointing contractors and preparing to actually get the road built. But unfortunately, Road Sense have decided they’re not satisfied with Lord Tyre’s judgement, and have announced they are to lodge another appeal, which, apparently due to delays in the judicial system, won’t be heard until the end of 2012 at the earliest!
I don’t think anybody here would suggest that affected individuals should not have the right to democratically challenge projects such as this, but it does seem ridiculous that a small group should be able to hold up a project that the majority of locals have demanded for years, after already having had their day in court. What’s much more offensive is that, again, Road Sense is seeking to have their legal fees capped – in other words, they want you and I, the taxpayer, to cover their costs!
With every day that goes by, the costs to the North East economy grows. The Scottish Government has been forced to spend over £1 million defending their plans from Road Sense’s attack, without an inch of tarmac being laid. Businesses are put off from investing in Aberdeen due to poor infrastructure. And, on a more day-to-day basis, just think how much fuel is wasted by vehicles sitting in traffic every day! Aberdeen is trying to position itself as a 21st century city, but it struggles along with 19th century transport infrastructure.
It’s not only the AWPR that is being held up, either. Transport Scotland, quite sensibly, decided it’d be more economical to build the bypass along with the A90 Balmedie – Tipperty dualling, another much-needed local project. Vital improvements to the Haudagain roundabout are also being held up, and there was even talk of looking into the possibility of building a flyover at the dangerous Laurencekirk junction on the A90 as part of the same contract. All these projects are being held up by these protesters. The cost can be measured in economic terms, but what about in human terms? Every day, inappropriate traffic clogs up narrow city streets, where there is sadly a much higher risk of accidents than on a modern, safe, purpose-built road. Those who oppose this project should take a moment to think about that.
The purpose of Common Sense is to put pressure on Road Sense, and its chairman William Walton. It is surely the right of every taxpayer to have their money spent wisely and democratically, and the majority of people in the North East want the AWPR built, not frittered away on pointless legal challenges. While we cannot force Road Sense to drop their appeal, we can certainly make our presence known, and campaign against them receiving a single penny more of public money in legal aid. Over 14,000 folk have already signed the Roadsense – Stop the Nonsense! petition. On the other hand, it was reported in the media that fewer than 60 people turned out to the Road Sense meeting that approved their appeal action. How can it be that such a tiny minority can cause such disruption to a project supported by the vast majority?
If you have any thoughts, comments or ideas for this site, or want to help join forces against Road Sense, please leave a message in the comments section of this post, or send us an e-mail. Let’s show William Walton what the residents of Aberdeen city and shire really think of him and his nonsense.
It’s unbelievable that these moaning bastards have delayed such a vital project yet again – and cost the taxpayer a fortune into the process – just because they didn’t like the ruling the last judge made. I hope the morons behind the campaign are forced to personally pay every penny that they have cost the taxpayer in wasted time, legal fees and added construction costs.
Look up the definition of `Sociopath’…
Coincidentally, the actions of `Roadsense’ fulfill many of the criteria. Let’s all 14000+ of us chip in a few quid and launch a counter legal action; The basis being that the individuals who are wilfully harming the economy & general health of the region & inhabitants are apparently not of sound mind?
Spread the word. Walton is doing a phone in on Northsound 2 on Sunday at 11am. No doubt he has all his pals (2 or so) lined up to call in to make him look good. We need to make sure the true voice of Aberdeen is heard so let’s make sure we give him what for! Questions for the clown, I’ll start:
Does your employer know how much of their time you spend on your pointless all about you quests?
Come to think of it here are a couple of others:
How much of your own money have you put into this campaign?
How does the AWPR affect you?
How many people voted for you to be the self appointed spokes person of the North East who can go around opposing every project that will bring jobs and improvement to our city?
These people have (quite rightly) used their rights to a judical hearing and inquiry, but have now lost and are now just using petty delaying tactics to hold up this deperately needed piece of infrastructure that will benefit the whole area and community.
The selfishness of these people is almost beyond belief. How much wasted time, pollution, inconvenience, cost etc etc are William Walton and his cronies going to impose on the people of Grampian?
Listened to William Walton this morning on Northsound 2. This man is supposed to be intelligent? Where did he get his degree? Disneyland? First off he tried to lay the blame on Alex Salmond who told him to take legal action in 2005. Well a lot has changed in the intervening years like the worst economic crisis in 80 years. The needs of Scotland have changed and the North East need the tools to pull the country of of recession. Second he claimed to have been lied to. Well I’ve got news for him you always know when a politician is lying you’ll see their lips moving. Imbecilic attitude I’m afraid or if you want to be kind naive. Thirdly he still couldn’t come up with a viable alternative. Fourthly he claimed his legal advisors have told him they have a good case for appeal. Well they would wouldn’t they why stop the gravy train for the legal profession again imbecilic attitude. Aberdeen University needs to fire his ass. Do you honestly think a Greenpeace activist would last long working for an Oil Company? No I don’t think so.
Oh by the way he did extend an invite to Roadsense AGM. Does anyone know when that is or any other meetings they are having where and when?
I’ve just been listening to the phone-in now – you can hear it here if you missed it (click “Talk In”). Some particularly good questions we’ve all been asking – “why should we the taxpayer pay for your appeals”, “who appointed you spokesperson for the North East”. I hope to write up a post with a bit more analysis soon. I’d suggest somebody could e-mail them and ask for their next AGM, but apparently due to “tirades of abuse” they’ve taken their e-mail address down.
Ah, it would appear that Road Sense’s contact details have been archived here, if anybody does want to enquire about their future meetings. I would advise against sending anything that may be construed as abusive, though (as tempting as it may be!) – we should engage with them courteously.
Owen you have failed to mention that the 3rd Don Crossing has also been included in the tender process also. Again this is a sensible move from an economic standpoint, economy of scale is a smart thing to do. I don’t know your stance on the CGP but given the transport hub that is being proposed there these things are all interlinked. I see certain objectors in recent months have dropped their heads below the parapit this means they are up to no good for sure. What is happening is that Martin Ford and Debra Storr are advising them to keep their heads down in the run up to next years council elections. If we are not careful we will end up with similar characters to Ford and Storr in the council chambers by default and little or no chance of getting anything done for the future of the North East. Anyone who values progress in the region needs to take action now against these individuals here’s a couple of names you can expect to see on ballot papers next May, Mike Shepherd and Michael Hodgson. Dangerous and devisive individuals you have been warned.
Listen to Walton and he is indeed a clown. Talks about Alex Salmond holding a meeting and saying such and such. Claims to have a minute of this meeting and had never bothered to mention this is public before. Where is this minute then? Clown.
People were told the road was going somewhere else so they didn’t complain. Even if they did complain all the complant would have done at that stage was to force the Government to hold a Public Local Inquiry. Did they not have a chance to talk up at the Public Local Inquiry then? Clown.
Should be a bypass but the route selection process was not correct. Is that because it passes by Roadsense members houses? Clown.
“Government is holding Aberdeen to ransom by not fixing Haudagain just now.” Has he ready any of the reports surrounding Haudagain. All the solutions the city council have looked at need the AWPR first AND the Third Don Crossing before it will make a shread of difference. The government holding a gun to Aberdeen’s head, who is he trying to kid! Clown.
“Why not put in money to buy these people off”, would those people be him and his chums then? Clown.
Sasha, are you sure the Third Don is in the mix for the same contract? I thought this had just been talked about, don’t think it is confirmed?
WaC you are possibly correct the TDC isn’t included in the mix however it would make sense from a financial point of view. They don’t want to start building the TDC before the AWPR is started as it might schew the inevitable need for the AWPR. I know Jacobs were doing some ground work on the north side of the Don fairly recently so from that perspective it could be true.
Why is Walton still employed by Aberdeen University. His presence in the University is dragging it’s good name into the gutter!
And it will be clowns like Walton who will later complain on how the costs of the scheme have mounted, without realising of course that rising costs would have been caused by himself mounting legal costs and those wider costs inherent in delaying much needed projects.
The Campaign for Better Transport are also good at this as part of their propaganda drive.