It’s only seven years since the Edinburgh City Region deal was signed, with the support of all the local authorities and both the Scottish and UK governments.
Now worth £1.6 billion, the agreement should accelerate economic growth and prosperity, and one element was upgrading the Sheriffhall junction on the City Bypass, with long jams now virtually round the clock.
Designs for a much-needed flyover are available, funding was in place, but in seven years we are no further forward, because both the Scottish Government and Edinburgh City Council are in such a thrall to the Green Party’s anti-car agenda.
A review of the project was ordered in 2020, when Edinburgh’s SNP-Labour administration was drunk with power during lockdown, blocking streets and narrowing roads in a hidden agenda to make driving as difficult as possible.
Having already accepted the need for the improvement in the City Deal, the SNP Scottish Government then bent to the Green Party’s will by agreeing to a public inquiry in 2023. The resulting report was delivered to SNP minsters a year ago and since then, nothing. Except we now know some £6.4 million has been spent on consultants to produce designs.
My colleague Miles Briggs has launched an online petition for work to start without further delay, and I hope it persuades transport secretary Fiona Hyslop to get a move on. She’s only got a year left in Holyrood, so it would be a nice way to sign off by delivering something of genuine benefit to the Lothians.
