unequal City & Shire Structure plan

[BigT]

The more I read this Structure Plan, the more it seems to be a desperate attempt by the City to attract as much business to itself as possible and to hell with any problems caused to those in rural areas. I say this because the City already has a severe traffic problem, many of the existing workers travel to the city from well within the Shire to work as it is, so if there is an increase is business within its boundaries, it can only exacerbate the situation. Let’s be honest here as well, why do most people from the Shire travel to the city by car? That’s right, because unless you live along the Inverurie/Huntly corridor, or the Stonehaven corridor where you have a train service, you are stuck with second rate busses to get to work. I hate them. In the summer the heating seems to be stuck on and in the winter, only the driver seems to have enough heat to be comfortable. Add to that the fact that the busses are far from modern - if you have a disability you can forget going anywhere different unless you live within the city - and the busses take longer than a car and are more expensive, especially if there is more than one person, you have a situation where the car is the only viable means of transport. Now the Structure Plan wants to put more businesses and build more houses within this constricted piece of real estate, thus increasing the misery for many.
Ironically, there is a plethora of land in the Shire for both businesses and housing and there is a deep water harbour at Peterhead and rail links to Inverurie, Huntly, Stonehaven and other towns along these routes. It seems to me that it would make sense to utilise this. Why don't we have a decent infrastructure to Peterhead already? We have had the oil here for a long time now and the lorries have been thundering up and down this what can only be described as inferior road, for some time. Why has the Council constantly refused to have the road upgraded? Failing that, why was the rail link never given serious consideration?
It seems to me that the designers of the plan are stuck in the past. They seem to believe that development should occur in the urban area and the rural will take care of itself. Studies have shown however, that this is not the case; that rural areas are bled dry of their youth because they move to the city to find work and the towns and villages end up supporting an increasingly ageing population until they fade away. The same studies have shown that when authorities encourage businesses to develop away from the large urban centre, rural populations tend to remain much healthier with a good cross-section of age groups. Furthermore, city dwellers will travel outwards to work quite happily and many of them do not want to live in rural areas, preferring the convenience of entertainment on their doorstep.
This means that instead of all traffic heading in the same direction, traffic heads in many different directions and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that this would allow full usage of the available roads and greatly reduce congestion, save time in cars and so reduce the pollution as well.
I have to wonder why this plan has been allowed to progress in this manner. There should be a lot more support for the Energetica corridor and the Shire council should be falling over itself to make land available for both businesses and housing. It is clear that Peterhead could have a long term sustainable future if a gamble were taken and the infrastructure improved. At least the Harbour board has vision and the courage to try improving facilities. Note the difference - they are not waiting until every contract is signed, sealed and delivered before they look to harbour improvements, they are testing the water then taking a chance that everything will go according to plan. The residents of the North east have been clamouring for the A90 to be duelled for a long time, so why don't the Council and the Government get together and get it done? I hope that council support is not "reserved" because the council is mainly SDP and the North East is SNP. There are certainly many who seem to believe this is the case though I reserve judgement on this.
Anyway, it seems that this is a golden opportunity to be forward thinking and to ensure a steady development in the area to take up the slack as the oil jobs disappear, but it is being allowed to act as a means of rescuing Aberdeen City from many years of gross mismanagement.
There again, perhaps I am just a cynic and the city will realise that they will not be in a position to hold up their end of the plan and they will graciously offer the shortfall to the Shire who will then, of course, fall over themselves to develop the Energetica corridor, despite the objections of Mr Ford and company (who will no doubt find a rare flower or breed of insect that will face extinction if a single brick is laid or club is swung - how on earth did all these species survive and adapt before we came along to protect them? Oh I forgot, survival of the fittest only applies to the natural environment. I have yet to see a grey squirrel taken to court for trying to eradicate the red squirrel).
Well that’s definitely enough of a rant for now. Feel free to leave any comments, and please remember that though I feel the plan is flawed, some of my comments are a bit tongue in cheek!

Cheers for now

[Chriswhite]

Tony,

Don't forget that this is a Scottish Govt road managed by BEAR. The two Councils are supportive:

http://www.nestrans.org.uk/projects/...?project_id=19

Just need to make sure that it does not get trampled in the Forth Bridge and reduced settlements from Westminster.