This response covers each of the road orders that collectively form the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route proposal and should be recorded as an objection to the scheme. A roads scheme of this scale will inevitably have serious, irreversible and unavoidable environmental and social impacts both locally and on a wider scale.  Environmental issues now have heightened importance due to growing evidence concerning the causes and impacts of climate change, with public policy being increasingly directed towards reducing emissions of carbon dioxide emissions - with transport being a critical sector.  Given this context, it is clear that there would need to be an overwhelming issue of national importance for such a destructive project to be deemed acceptable – no such need has been established especially as lower cost alternatives exist.  The scheme and the precedent it sets must be seen as a direct threat to the delivery of Scotland’s Climate Change Strategy as its approval would imply that individual projects need not show any sense of collective responsibility in terms of addressing the overriding need to reduce CO2 emissions.

Submission to Consultation on the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route