M74 Extension

Jim Taggart

Jim Taggart, one-time convenor of Strathclyde Regional Labour Party Transport Working Group.

In the 1960s, the Buchanan plan, in a burst of enthusiasm, set out proposals for a motorway network through, over and under Greater Glasgow. The memorial to those days is the M8. This massive project made Glasgow unique in that it had a motorway running through the city centre.

However the M8 was not the only motorway planned for inner Glasgow. The intention was that the M8 should form the West and North sides of a Motorway box to enclose the heart of the city. Vigorous opposition in the 1980s by Glasgow for People and the Regional Labour Party put paid to the "east flank" of the box which was intended to run from Townhead, over Glasgow Cross on immense stilts, to cross the river by the Western edge of Glasgow Green.

The Scottish Executive's current proposal for the M74 Extension is for nothing other than the "south flank" link to the M74. In the last couple of years, the cost of the proposal for five miles of urban motorway has risen fourfold - from £250m to £1bn with a possible public private partnership incorporated in the plan.

I concede that there could be an argument to provide a new road (not necessarily a motorway) to link the West Highlands, Ayrshire and Renfrewshire with the M74. The "M74 Extension" is neither the economic nor sensible way to do it. If truly needed, such a road should run from the Erskine Bridge, south of Paisley, by East Kilbride and join the M74 in the Hamilton area. Such a road would have far lower construction costs and take traffic away from the Glasgow conurbation.

The present intention will encourage traffic growth in the inner urban area, separate the South side from the city centre and destroy many small businesses.

It appears that the cost of the present project could run at £38,000 per linear foot of carriageway. In my view the forces driving this enterprise are not so much those concerned with the public good but rather those devoted to transferring public money into private pockets. Were the project to proceed, I fear we could end up with a public inquiry, which could make the Fraser inquiry into the costs of the Scottish Parliament fade into oblivion.

Glasgow does not need more motor vehicles, fouling the atmosphere with hydrocarbon vapours and the oxides of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur. If you want to end it all, you shut the garage door and turn on the engine.

If the Scottish Executive has £1bn to spend, it could spare a fraction of it to implement Strathclyde Region's Cross Rail scheme. Before the Region was abolished, a fully researched and sensible proposal to integrate the North and South urban rail systems was put before the Westminster parliament. If the Scottish Executive has a serious intention to improve the atmosphere of Scotland's largest conurbation and help its people get about, it could do no better than implement this scheme.

First there was the Dome. Then the Parliament, now the M74 extension. Labour administrations must not even appear to use public money to give a little help to their "friends" in the construction industry. It rather should be their job to use public money to improve the lot of the whole body of citizens.