Wednesday 8th February 2012

Stop Climate Chaos Scotland welcomes today’s announcement from John Swinney that an additional £13m over three years, compared to the Budget Bill published last month, will be allocated to sustainable and active travel. However, we note that this is still a cut on the funding available for this work in the current year.

Tom Ballantine, Chair of Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, said:

“While we welcome the additional funding that the Scottish Government has allocated to sustainable and active travel in today’s budget announcement, it is still insufficient to deliver plans to meet Scotland’s climate change targets. The Government’s own plans to meet targets – set out in the Report on Proposals and Policies - are still not fully funded through this budget.

The funding allocated for sustainable and active travel for the coming two years remains a cut on the funding available in 2011-12. At the same time, yet more funding - £72m - has been allocated to the carbon-generating road-building programme. This will not encourage people in Scotland to choose sustainable and active travel options.”

ENDS