Eck, Earl and the Big Freeze

Following up on my thoughts about trams last week, lets have a look at big Eck Salmond's other decision which has thrown Edinburgh's transport policy into confusion - the withdrawal of funding for the EARL (Edinburgh Airport Rail Link).

Again, the decision that had previously been made was very costly - re-routing all trains from fife and other areas through the airport. It would also have involved tunnelling under the runway (which we'll come back to in a minute). Leaving aside the environmental question of whether we should be encouraging more people to fly, the planning seems to have been built around almost contradictory assumptions.

Firstly, that air traffic through Edinburgh will increase (which it almost certainly will) and that better links from the airport to the city centre are needed (which, again they probably are).

However, the technical specifications for the link, and in particular for that crucial tunnel, were based around the assumption that no larger planes than currently use the airport would use it in the future. (I know this because a friend of mine works for the civil engineering firm to whom the brief was given). Meaning that if, as is quite likely with the way things are going, larger planes did start using Edinburgh, the tunnel would need a costly re-inforcing. Surely, an example of the worst kind of short-termist thinking. I don't think this is why Mr Salmond opposes the plan - I think he needs to save money to make his budget balance - but by default he has arrived at the right place of the need to look at this again.

2-0 to Mr Salmond. Until we get to the council tax - which Mr Salmond intends to scrap and replace with a local council tax - personally, I think thats a good idea, even though I'm probably going to end up a few pounds a month worse off. However, his first step towards this has been to suggest to all Scottish local authorities that council tax levels should be frozen for the next few years. Here's where I start to have a problem.

I work for a local council, I know they could be more efficient. But I also know it ain't gonna happen overnight. In fact it would probably require some investment to make the necessary changes. So the immediate result of a council tax freeze would be cutbacks in services. With local councils already having to make cutbacks to deal with equal pay rulings, the picture would be pretty grim and it would be the least affluent parts of society that would be hit most. Many of these people are already on council tax benefit, so would gain nothing from a freeze, whilst simultaneously losing support services. So, no, not a good plan. I haven't seen any indication yet whether councils will heed Mr Salmond's pleas. Obviously I hope they don't.