Liberal Democrats have launched a new campaign urging the Scottish Government to step up action on infrastructure improvements for the north-east.
MPs, MSPs and councillors joined forces to back the “Fair Deal” scheme to encourage greater investment in transport projects, housing and local government funding.
Armed with a spade that will be delivered to First Minister Alex Salmond to get moving on “shovel ready” projects, the Lib Dems said the SNP needed to “stop dreaming ” about independence and deliver.
Speaking on the final day of the party’s spring conference in Aberdeen, long serving Gordon MP Sir Malcolm Bruce said: “I have always accepted that a lot of these things take time, but the fact is that in the 30-odd years that I have been here I have had to work with governments in Westminster and governments in Holyrood and we have had progress steadily, frankly until the SNP came to power. It has then ground to a halt. We have had plenty of promises but no delivery at all.
“If you think about it, in my time, we built along the A96, the Bucksburn bypass, the Kintore bypass, the Inverurie bypass, we have built the dual carriageway between here and Ellon except for the Tipperty section which would have been completed now under our proposals if the SNP hadn’t pulled it out.
“The lack of action paralyses industry and completely undermines our role as the oil capital of Europe.”
Sir Malcolm criticised a Scottish Government announcement last week about a multimillion-pound investment in the Inverness to Aberdeen rail line as having “no timelines” on it.
He added: “That’s just not good enough. The north-east is the powerhouse of the British economy, never mind the Scottish economy.”
The Lib Dems, in a statement issued yesterday, also said that the Scottish Government has only spent 0.5% of its major infrastructure funding in the north-east since 2005.
Alison McInnes, MSP for the region, said the “Fair Deal for the North-East” campaign was set up because the area has been “short changed” for too long.
She added: “We really don’t get our fair share, either in council funding, transport projects or particularly in health and housing for the region.
“What we are saying is, we are challenging Mr Salmond to start delivering for the north-east.
“They have been in government for seven years, we have had lots of promises, but actually no action at all.
“So we are gifting him a spade so he can get going on these shovel-eady projects that he says he has money for, because we have no shortage of projects that we need here in the north-east.”
Mrs McInnes said her party was “ambitious” for the area, and wanted to see Crossrail links, the speedy completion of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR) and improved public transport.
A spokesman for Local Government Minister Derek Mackay said: “Despite the Scottish Government’s own budget being cut by the Tory-Lib Dem Government at Westminster, Aberdeen gets a better deal than ever before, thanks to a funding floor formula we introduced in 2012 which has secured an extra £7million for the city in the three years to 2015.
“We are also taking forward key projects like the £650million city bypass that the Lib Dems failed to deliver when they were in office, and which will generate over £6billion in investment to the north-east over the next 30 years.”