Graham's monthly column in the East Kilbride News, 01 March 2017
IT’S easy in politics to make knee-jerk responses to things and it is wrong to do so. Proposals to build houses are often objected to by locals and councillors, MSPs and MPs who jump on the bandwagon. The same applies to new roads. They are rarely popular.
This week I attended the official opening of the new Cathkin Relief Road, just down from East Kilbride. That’s been delivered under the Glasgow City Region Deal, which is seeing £1billion invested across eight local authority areas over a number of years.
I think city deals - which were pioneered by the Conservatives in the UK government and are backed with UK government money – are a great way of generating growth. But they should not be used as a way to get age-old projects done just because the money is there.
I’ve had concerns for some time over the plan to use City Deal money to turn Stewartfield Way into a dual carriageway. It’s one of the projects put forward by South Lanarkshire Council but, as yet, they have produced no justification for it. A town-wide traffic study was carried out last year. I have been trying for months to get information on its results but to no avail. This suggests to me that it may demonstrate that the dualling is not needed – or at least not all of it. To me, the part of the project that makes sense is to put a flyover from Stewartfield Way to the Expressway. That would unclog the part of the road where there are issues – the Kingsgate roundabout. None of the rest of the scheme is required and will cause mayhem while it is being done. It will be a huge waste of money.
This is not a knee-jerk reaction from me. As I say, I have been trying to get the information. The Conservative objection to this scheme will form a key plank of our campaign in the local council elections in May. I am guessing that Labour support it. I don’t know about others but for us – me and our candidate in East Kilbride Ian Harrow – it’s bad news.
Speaking of Labour, they are at each other’s throats in East Kilbride. This spent-force of a party has two camps in the town who won’t work together. It’s a feud that has been brewing for some time.
Meanwhile, we are getting our candidates in place, getting round the doors and are getting a good reaction.
When it comes to voting in May, there is only one party equipped to take on the SNP and fight their obsession with having another referendum and that’s the Scottish Conservatives.