The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Scotland has launched its Manifesto for Infrastructure ahead of elections for the Holyrood Parliament in May.
The manifesto sets out ‘a vision of what needs to be done to ensure Scotland has transport, energy, waste, water and flooding networks fit for the future.’
The Forth Bridge: Demonstrates 'the importance of maintenance'
It follows ICE Scotland’s State of the Nation Infrastructure Report, launched in November.
ICE Scotland is challenging ‘policy-makers of all political persuasions’ to commit to proposals under three broad categories – resilience, delivery and skills.
It says that ‘whatever the result in May, it is vital infrastructure continues to be at the heart of Scotland’s economic plans’.
Director of ICE Scotland Sara Thiam said: ‘How we travel and bring water and heat to our homes and businesses is the result of historic investment decisions, but we have an aging infrastructure and need to look to the future.
‘ICE Scotland’s manifesto highlights the issues which will shape the future delivery of infrastructure in Scotland, and offers practical ways forward, and we ask policy-makers to commit to the aims and join the discussion of how we deliver the future infrastructure which Scotland requires.’
The manifesto gives the country’s local transport a grade of D+ and its strategic transport a B- grade. It sets out a 10 point plan for infrastructure, including two recommendations specifically for the transport sector.
The first is that ‘the Scottish Government and local authorities should fully commit to addressing the road maintenance backlog, moving to a system of planned and preventative maintenance, underpinned by a multi-year investment programme’.
The second recommendation is that ‘local transport planning should be more closely aligned with city region structures and issues of overlapping planning and governance should be addressed’.
The manifesto says ‘greater integration between different modes of transport should be prioritised to promote modal shift to public and active transport’.
ICE Scotland argues that recent events such as flooding in the North East and Borders regions and the closures of the Forth Road Bridge and M8 motorway ‘have underlined the importance of maintenance investment’.
