We held the second in our ‘Moving the Vote: Transport Conversations with the parties’ event series yesterday, Thursday 11 March. A recording of which can be found here. We were excited to welcome Carole Ford, the Lib Dem Spokesperson for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity. Alongside Alastair Dalton, Transport Correspondent for The Scotsman/Scotland on Sunday, as chair.
For details of the other events in this series please visit our ‘Moving the Vote’ webpage.
The event began with introductions from Transform’s Policy Officer, Marie Ferdelman, and Alastair Dalton. Following this, Carole gave a short outline of her party’s vision for sustainable transport. She commented on the importance of regional decision-making, as well as the need to adopt a holistic approach to transport planning to ensure that it is the ‘easier option’ (than cars) for the public. She acknowledged that car use must be curbed.
The event was live-tweeted from the Transform Scotland account and can be summarised by the tweets below:
Join me at 1pm today to hear from @scotlibdems transport spokesperson @CaroleFord1 https://t.co/CNQTAlR8Ix
— Alastair Dalton (@AlastairDalton) March 11, 2021
Our policy officer Marie Ferdelman has opening our #MovingTheVote event now.@AlastairDalton welcomes @CaroleFord1.
He notes that @scotlibdems have had two previous @scotgov transport ministers.
— Transform Scotland (@TransformScot) March 11, 2021
.@CaroleFord1 highlights @scotlibdems policy under four headings:
* Climate Emergency
* passenger experience
* economic impacts
* social equity impacts
Final transport policy to be published prior to the election.#MovingtheVote
— Transform Scotland (@TransformScot) March 11, 2021
Great to be at the @TransformScot transport policy event with @CaroleFord1 @scotlibdems – some great ideas on active travel and public transport pic.twitter.com/V8KLwnjOSj
— Joseph Carter (@joseph_ALUK) March 11, 2021
First question as to whether EVs are really a solution to transport problems.@CaroleFord1 answer is that they are better than fossil fuel cars, but they've not a solution in and of themselves.#MovingtheVote
— Transform Scotland (@TransformScot) March 11, 2021
Question from @walkwheelcycle as to whether @scotlibdems will support '10% spend on active travel' demand.@CaroleFord1 says current 2.6% is "ridiculously low" but we'll have to wait until April for final policy position.#MovingtheVote
— Transform Scotland (@TransformScot) March 11, 2021
David Spaven flags discrepancy between limited spend on upgrading #HighlandMainLine with £3 billion on #A9dualling. Will worsen #rail & #railfreight competiitiveness.@CaroleFord1 says we need a "balance", and that @scotlibdems would correct this balance.#MovingtheVote
— Transform Scotland (@TransformScot) March 11, 2021
Next question: Will @scotlibdems support #RoadPricing & #WorkplaceParkingLevy schemes?@CaroleFord1 says that's a local decision. Not prepared to support at a national level.#MovingtheVote
— Transform Scotland (@TransformScot) March 11, 2021
.@_julesrobertson from @XploreDundee says that franchising won't solve decline of #bus services.
Says it doesn't matter who owns the buses if politicians won't tackle #congestion.#MovingTheVote
— Transform Scotland (@TransformScot) March 11, 2021
Next Q: How do we get people back on #PublicTransport following the pandemic?@CaroleFord1 supports free bus travel for the under-22s. Also wants local control of #buses.#MovingTheVote
— Transform Scotland (@TransformScot) March 11, 2021
.@ianmccall49 asks what @scotlibdems will do post-pandemic to lock-in positive behaviours.@CaroleFord1
wants focus on 20-minute nieghbourhoods.@backonmybike asks for more policy specifics.#MovingtheVote— Transform Scotland (@TransformScot) March 11, 2021
Our analysis is that active travel funding is 3.5% of transport budget in@Scotland. @CaroleFord1 see this blog https://t.co/xW1MVGVCxM https://t.co/nBLEtD2ffH
— Jim Densham (@JimDensham) March 11, 2021
.@AlastairDalton asks what can be done to improve women's safety in transport.@CaroleFord1 says it's a "difficult problem" everywhere, not just in the UK. Flags need for well-lit streets & transport infrastructure.#MovingtheVote
— Transform Scotland (@TransformScot) March 11, 2021
.@AlastairDalton wraps up our #MovingTheVote event with @CaroleFord1 of the @scotlibdems.@TransformScot's Marie Ferdelman flags differences of opinion on road-building & the merits of bus franchising, but common ground on a number of other issues. pic.twitter.com/k394gnIGTV
— Transform Scotland (@TransformScot) March 11, 2021
Our thanks again to Carole Ford for joining us for the event and to Alastair Dalton for chairing.
