Nice to see the Tories attacking the Welsh Government's proposals not to concrete over Wales with new roads yesterday. Indeed, Ramblings is aware that their spokespeople David Melding and Alun Cairns have both criticised the Plaid-driven administration over not building a new link road to Cardiff International Airport, whilst at the same time supporting local groups who have been campaigning against such a link road.
Similarly, the Vale of Glamorgan Labour AM Jane Hutt campaigned against the link road, while Labour MP John Smith was calling for one. Mixed messages from the British parties as usual.
A shift of emphasis away from building new roads and towards public transport is precisely what is required in the age of climate crisis and economic difficulty.
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5 comments:
Funny innit? All these British nationalists prefer to spend public money on nuclear weapons, perpetual war, sending working class kids to needless death and injury in Afghanistan, etc, then complain about no new roads. When will they admit you can't spend the same euro twice?
Mind you, why Plaid puts up with this contradiction too beats me. Let Labour do their own dirty work, and not get tarred with the same brush. There are limits to managerial politics and it's about time Plaid realised we've passed it - with worse to come.
http://www.antimetrix.org/
http://www.antimetrix.org/
Great news that airport road is doomed.
reality Check need on loony defence PFI project
Defence College is unaffordable...the NEW LABOUR government is still pouring money in to this project or money pit. The Government has offered Metrix an additional £44m of state guarantees – in effect promising to pay for preparatory work even if it scraps the deal. There is also a requirement for MOD to deliver a clear site at St Athan before construction work can begin.
The Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) have agreed to fund clearance of the site, with a pre-Financial Close maximum expenditure of £12.5M. WAG is, however, unwilling to
start work prior to Financial Close unless this work is underwritten by MOD lest the Defence Training College fails to reach Financial Close.
http://www.antimetrix.org/2009/07/x-money-pit-qinetiq-consortium-denies.html
Note this weeks private Eye article DEBT Knell
As experts draw up lists of defence projects to scrap in order to fill the multi-million-pound black hole that is the Ministry of Defence, officials are quietly pressing on with the planned £12bn privatisation of military training even though they know it is unaffordable.
More than 2 years ago the then armed forces minister Des Browne admitted he was privatising
defence training because the up-front investment needed could only be met if it was kept
off-balance sheet by using the private finance initative (even though PFI costs more in the long run - see Eye 1177) . This meant that companies had to buy the buildings and rent them back to the MoD, complete with the training of soldiers, sailors and air crew.
A read out from an MoD meeting seen by the Eye now reveals that the project is looking unaffordable precisely because it is a PFI deal. "Currently there is a £1.3bn affordability issue in the programme," an offical reports. "The problem is borrowing at a reasonable rate for PFI".
The amount needed can not be met from the £2bn "infrastructure fund" the government has already agreed to lend to struggling PFI deals, as this is largely earmarked for schools and hospitals .
The deal, due to kick off next autumn, isn't helped by trouble with one area of military training that is to be brought in but is already privatised: naval training at HMS Sultan. Essential information from there can't be obtained "due to their ongoing political issue with [private consortium] VT Flagship" Not surprisingly the official reports gloomily: "Currently planned programme will be hard to achieve"
But the MoD is determined to press ahead, going back to parliament for approval for a further £44m in "pre-contract allocation" to cover the escalating costs of the Metrix consortium (Qinetiq, Sodexo, Raytheon, EDS, and others), without which "Mx [Metrix] could walk away, although it is anticipated that they will not". Very encouraging.
So Melding thinks the Airport Road should have been built?
Don't tell Andrew R T Davies.
He says in this week's Gem:
"This will be a big relief for Vale communities that had this hanging over them, and is a credit to the campaigns they fought."
Interesting two people with the same name....
Broadly agree. The Tories are all over the place on local issues, particularly in the Vale where they also run the council who guess what, wanted a link road built.
Labour are the same, their Vale MP wanting a link road built and slamming Ieuan Wyn Jones for not doing it, and their Vale AM campaigning against the road.
No prizes for guessing which party has been consistent on the link road question.
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