A senior Aberdeenshire councillor today expressed disappointment that SNP councillors refused to support a report calling on the Scottish Government to give greater priority to the vital infrastructure needs of the North East.

Today’s council meeting was asked to consider its response to the Scottish Government’s National Planning Framework 3 (NPF3), published by ministers on 14 January. The document provides a framework for development across the whole of Scotland, together with the government’s priorities for the next 20 or 30 years.

It also identifies nationally important developments to support its approach, including carbon capture and storage at Peterhead, improvements at Aberdeen airport and the project to develop Aberdeen harbour.

While welcoming many aspects of NPF3, the council’s response raised concerns over the lack of detailed actions to deliver the infrastructure necessary to support the levels of growth envisioned by Scottish ministers, particularly in the North East.

The report also highlighted concerns previously raised by the council and by Nestrans over the priority being given to a project to develop high speed rail between Edinburgh and Glasgow, rather than to improving journey times between the North East and the Central Belt.

 Liberal Democrat councillor Peter Argyle, chairman of the Infrastructure Services Committee, commented: “I was absolutely astonished that the SNP group failed to back a report calling for greater priority to be given to rail links to and from the North East, rather than this unnecessary and uncosted high speed rail project.

“The Scottish Government is already spending £650m on rail improvements between Edinburgh and Glasgow, to reduce journey times by an estimated eight minutes and increase capacity. High speed rail coming on top of this investment would be a luxury Scotland cannot afford at this stage, certainly not in isolation from the wider UK high speed rail project. 

“We urgently need Scottish Government investment to improve journey times between Aberdeen and the Central Belt.

“Taking almost three hours to travel by rail from the economic powerhouse of Scotland to the Central Belt is inadequate in the 21st century. While there are still sections of single track around Montrose, including high speed rail in NPF3 as a priority National Development simply cannot be justified.

“It is a sad fact that of the £2.6bn of capital transport projects underway across Scotland today, none are in the North East. Indeed, the last Scottish Government project to be completed in our area was Laurencekirk station, way back in 2007. It is disappointing that the SNP failed to support the Aberdeenshire community on this issue and instead wanted to back the inclusion of this high speed project.”

Following debate and a vote, the proposal from the Aberdeenshire Alliance to endorse the response was agreed and it will now be forwarded to the Scottish Government.

North Kincardine councillor Ian Mollison said: “Our focus should be on putting the case for the North East. And that includes pointing out when the Scottish Government has got it wrong. High speed trains should not be running between Glasgow and Edinburgh at the expense of better rail services in the North East. What happened to electrification? What happened to Crossrail, including more local station in the Aberdeen area, including Newtonhill?” 

• See link for the report and proposed response: http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/committees/files_meta/802572870061668E80257C67003642AE/(04A)%20National%20Planning%20Framework%203.pdf