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M74 GO AHEAD - FoE Scotland Comment

14 February 2008
Topics: Transport


Commenting on today's decision by the Scottish Government to forge ahead with the controversial M74 motorway extension, Duncan McLaren, Chief Executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said:

"It's sad that the Government is going ahead with this disastrous road. This scheme was rejected by a public inquiry on both economic and environmental grounds. The new Government has introduced fresh thinking on climate change,
but on road-building it seems stuck in the 1960s - when this proposal was first mooted.

"This announcement rather makes a mockery of the Government's budget pledge of £33 million for a climate change fund, less than one-tenth of the £445 million to be spent on construction of the climate-busting M74 extension.

"With a tight budget settlement it would be much better value for the public purse to save this money, and indeed to recoup some from the money already wasted on the project by selling off the land that has already been puchased."

Friends of the Earth Scotland is an environmental charity based in Scotland
5 Rose Street, Edinburgh EH2 2PR. Tel: 0131 243 2700. Registered charity number SC003442