Greenbelt Alliance plans campaign to stop bypass project
An Alliance of groups fighting to preserve greenbelt land says it will try to stop a city bypass from going ahead.
The Aberdeen Greenbelt Alliance claims the bypass is a waste of money, a quarter of a century too late, and that the planners are guilty of wishful thinking and have lost touch with reality.
The group includes two community councils and the Save Camphill Campaign - the organisation fighting to prevent two communities for vulnerable residents being split by the road - the Western Peripheral Route.
The alliance says its estimate of the cost of the road is £400m, more than three times the planners' estimate of £127m.
Consultants have estimated it will only achieve a 2% reduction in Aberdeen city centre traffic and the alliance says it will be "incredibly poor value".
It has several alternative suggestions under examination that it says should be seriously considered.
"The alliance likes to believe that the planning around the route is characterised by good intentions," the organisation said yesterday.
"However, it is of the opinion that the officials in this project have taken a 'developer's charter' and applied it to the greenbelt.
"In short, the current plan with all its associated industrial parks, housing developments, and the usual retail parks, fast food outlets, and filling stations drives a coach and horses through the Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen greenbelt," the group added.
"The greenbelt is there to be preserved and enhanced and is one of the elements which makes Aberdeen such a pleasant place to work and live.
"The current plans violate most, if not all, established planning legislation and guidelines relating to the greenbelt.
"There might have been a case for a route through the greenbelt some 25 years ago, when the oil-industry was in its heyday but we now have the realisation that we have a responsibility for our environment and our fellow-citizens with learning difficulties."
The alliance plans a concerted campaign to stop the road.
The alliance has won support from William Walton, a senior lecturer in town planning at Aberdeen University.
He believes a local authority plan to release greenbelt land for around 6000 new houses is unlawful.
The Herald, 11th October 2004
