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SEStran Regional Transport Strategy approved

Date: 07th July 2008

4 July 2008   

For Immediate Release

SEStran Regional Transport Strategy approved

15 year development plan for transport in South East Scotland gets Ministerial go-ahead

Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change, Stewart Stevenson has today approved SEStran’s revised Regional Transport Strategy (RTS).   The original strategy was presented to Transport Minister, Tavish Scott, on 31st of March 2007.

Following the general election and subsequent change of administration, the RTS was returned to SEStran for revision. Although the objectives contained within the revised strategy remain the same, changes in  local authority funding have made implementation a longer-term aim than originally envisaged.  

The revised strategy therefore focuses upon a prioritised approach towards investment, which takes into account the new funding arrangements.

SEStran Chair, Cllr Russell Imrie said:

“I am delighted that the Regional Transport Strategy has finally been approved. It is SEStran’s blueprint for building a transport system in South East Scotland that is comprehensive, sustainable, socially inclusive and which meets the needs of business”.  

“The new realities of public authority financing, following the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review obliged us to reconsider how best to achieve this goal. Capital funding for transportation is now rolled up in the Local Authority settlement, in addition to being one of the tightest settlements for transport in recent years.  This presents us with a challenge on how best to deliver regional transport initiatives”. 

“We look forward to working closely with our local authority partners, through input into single outcome agreements that the partners make with government, in order to build a transportation system for SE Scotland that is fit for the 21st century.”

ENDS

SEStran - South East of Scotland Transport Partnership - is one of seven new Statutory Regional Transport Partnerships (RTP) created by the Transport (Scotland) Act 2005 and is a partnership of eight local councils covering the Borders, East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian, Edinburgh, Fife, Falkirk and Clackmannanshire.

For further information, please contact:

Andrew Dougal, SEStran Communications Officer

T: 0131-524-5161

M: 07889-010-291

E: Andrew.dougal@sestran.gov.uk