WPR = Waste of Public Resources

The proposed Western Peripheral Route; in its present design and style will be a Waste of Public Resources. Unless some greater sanity and human decency prevails, the present proposed WPR will cause a trio of tears when the truth emerges that it will be Wasteful, Pointless and Ruinous:-

In a nutshell, the WPR is coming to represent the lack of common sense and vision of planners, appearing to be influenced by of developers desire for profit. Planners, it seems, are presently outwitting both the Aberdeen public and our genuinely caring, hardworking but time-poor politicians. The planners and developers have dealt a trick with their ‘slight of hand’ over the WPR. There can still be a peripheral road around Aberdeen; but not this particularly expensive one, not in this present design and not on this proposed route through the Greenbelt.

When looking objectively at what the planners and developers presently propose for the WPR, we see waste, pointlessness and ruin to the environment. Planners seem to forget that they are public servants, and should not be at the beck and call of the powerful developers to the detriment of the people of Aberdeen. We need a more democratic voice to be heard. We do not want them to Waste our money, we do not want them to plan Pointless schemes and we do not want them to Ruin the Greenbelt and despoil an Aberdeen treasure.

W is for Wasteful: We will have to pay for it. As presently designed and proposed by the planners, it will be a very expensive road, with costs climbing ever upwards and a heavy burden on all Aberdeen Council tax payers. Huge extra costs too will accrue from the present Motorway design – why a full motorway design? Why is an upgraded A road with lower costs not proposed? The present A90 takes much traffic and is not a motorway. The motorway style design proposed, with several raised box junctions add a great deal of extra costs. Added costs too for the proposed motorway style cuttings; hillsides are blasted away to conform with motorway design. This is unsuitable here with our Aberdeen granite and other tough rocks to blast through. High costs to the public’s purse!

P is for Pointless: The present route is pointless in terms of relieving traffic congestion in Aberdeen’s city centre; more a road to nowhere. Only 3 – 7% of city centre cars will be removed, and other studies put this as low as 2%. For the remaining 93 – 98% of traffic, Aberdeen remains a destination. So why this route? It seems the road is really planned as a developer’s charter and not as a road to relieve our traffic congestion.

Click on chart to enlarge

R is for Ruinous: The proposed route will ruin Aberdeen’s Greenbelt, one of the prides of Aberdeen. We let central planners ruin our roses –– when the Scottish Executive trunked Anderson Drive and Great Northern Road – its profusion of flowers is now only a distant memory. Now another jewel in Aberdeen’s crown, its Greenbelt, is threatened. The planners are not putting their efforts into treasuring this protected green heritage, indeed they dishonourably plan to put this motorway right through it. They are using the WPR to promote the “crammed city” concept in the current Local Plans for Aberdeen. In the Crammed City plans large amounts of the Greenbelt are sacrificed to housing for the developers to despoil Aberdeen’s greenbelt for future generations. Aberdeen needs it green lung – its One Greenbelt around the western periphery of the city. Aberdeen’s green heritage must be saved. The WPR must not destroy the Greenbelt and the tranquillity of its fields, the beauty of the gently rolling hills with their trees and wildlife and the enjoyment for future generations of peaceful amenity woodlands like Countesswells Woods.

Other planning options that save the Greenbelt become possible without the motorway style WPR.. With all that money one can have an upgraded A road, multi-centric development around railheads - one that looks at reopening stations in the Shire – such as Lawrencekirk or Kintore, one that would look at light rail options for an integrated transport plan for the city

There has to be another design and route for the WPR, which will serve the purpose of relieving congestion from the city. A real WPR, not this sham WPR.