Concern over decision to drop A947 Park & Ride

There are now no concrete proposals for enhanced public transport on the A947 corridor. The road is already severely congested in morning and evening and in the Proposed Local Development Plan approved by Aberdeenshire Council in June almost 1900 additional houses are planned for the main settlements along the A947.
        
Cllr Martin Ford represents the East Garioch ward which includes the Parkhill junction and Newmachar. Said Cllr Ford: "The Aberdeenshire Proposed Local Development Plan allocates almost 1900 houses (up to 2023) to the main settlements on the A947 (Newmachar, Oldmeldrum, Turriff and Banff), effectively making it another growth corridor. However, the Council has now cancelled plans for park and ride on this corridor removing the funding for the intended terminal at Parkhill from its capital plan. This means there are no proposals for enhanced public transport on the A947 corridor.

               

"The A947 is already a severely congested road morning and evening with long queues on a daily basis at Parkhill junction. Traffic levels on the A947 are forecast to increase if the Western Peripheral Route is built. It is nonsensical for the Council to allocate this level of housing without addressing the infrastructure and public transport deficit on this corridor. It is also contrary to the main stated environmental aims of the Proposed Local Development Plan in that all this housing will inevitably increase transport-related carbon emissions unless public transport is improved.

       

"I will be pressing the Council to commit to supporting alternative public transport options for the A947 corridor.

        

"There is now a national commitment to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent by 2020, yet Aberdeenshire Council is taking decisions that will make the position worse, not help meet the target."

      

Cllr Paul Johnston, who represents Mid-Formartine ward, said: "I have now lodged a formal objection to the Proposed Local Development Plan to ensure the lack of co-ordination between the Council's planning and transport decisions can be re-examined. Either the housing allocations along the A947 must be now be reduced or removed or additional public transport provision must be made a condition of allowing major development to proceed in the settlements on the A947.

     

Cllrs Ford and Johnston and other councillors in the Democratic Independent Group lodged objections to the region's structure plan on the grounds that better transport provision was required to support the level of new development envisaged. They warned then that there was an issue of the affordability of the infrastructure required to support the very high level of house building sought by the structure plan. Aberdeenshire Council is now facing significant budget cuts and many projects are likely to be dropped as a result.