This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Transport funding for South East Scotland
18/11/2003
SESTRANS was today awarded £4.5 million to fund
improvements to public transport in South East
Scotland.
The Minister was speaking at the SESTRANS conference in
Edinburgh on the proposed transport agency for Scotland and
new regional transport partnerships of local authorities.
This is part of a series of conferences being held by the
voluntary regional transport partnerships to discuss how
best to deliver services in their area.
Mr Stephen said:
"We must focus on improving public transport and that is
frequently best achieved by a co-ordinated regional
approach. Today I am awarding £4,501,751 to improve public
transport in South East Scotland. I want the regional
bodies and local authorities to work together to use this
money to secure improvements, for example, to the bus
infrastructure, such as bus stops, better bus information,
park and ride facilities, bus priority measures and
projects to make cycling and walking more attractive.
"We can help build strong communities and tackle poverty
by connecting people to each other through better transport
links. The key to this is joint working between local
authorities and transport providers and that is why this
funding will be distributed to projects through the
regional SESTRANS partnership.
"One of the biggest challenges we face is the need to
make public transport more attractive, safer and more
sustainable in order to promote economic growth and to
connect our communities.
"Scotland's local authorities will play a vital role in
delivering better transport services. We have the resources
in place - with spending on transport rising to £1 billion
a year by 2006 - we must now agree the best way forward to
deliver the benefits this investment will bring.
"By setting up an agency we can better integrate the way
services are delivered and improve the quality of people's
journeys. I want a framework that allows people to deliver
to the best of their ability and regional conferences will
help in agreeing how that framework might look.
"Working together will be crucial to our success. Local
authorities, the regional partnerships, transport
authorities and the Executive will all have an important
role to play in bringing these improvements forward."
The transport agency will help deliver significant
investments to secure improvements such as extending
concessionary fare schemes, supporting direct air routes to
Scotland and integrating improvements to roads and public
transport.
The regional conferences began last week in Glasgow,
with events held in Aberdeen and Nairn yesterday. A
national conference to be hosted by the Scottish Executive
will be held in Glasgow at the Scottish Exhibition and
Conference Centre on November 25.
Scotland's Transport: Proposals for a new approach to
transport in Scotland was published in September and the
consultation will close on 17 December 2003.
The £4,501,751 in funding comes from the Other Public
Transport Budget
SESTRANS is a regional transport partnership responsible
for private and public transport as well as transport
infrastructure in South East Scotland. It is a joint
committee made up of nine local authorities in the region,
as well as the Forth Estuary Transport Authority
(FETA).