Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

M74 Extension: Contracts Awarded, Costs up 30%

CH | 16.02.2008 01:14 | Ecology

After months of silence the SNP government have announced that they will press ahead with the big business scheme to extend the M74 through the Southside of Glasgow. A contract has been signed awarding the single bidder 30% more than expected.

The reasons against the project are many and well-aired over the 40 years the scheme has hung over the area like an executioner's axe. They can be read in the Public Local Inquiry report (available at  http://scotland.indymedia.org/media/all/display/3951, but not on the project's official website).

This week's developments. The admitted cost has risen by 30%, to £650 million. £200M has already been spent acquiring land on the route, including from Labour millionaire Willie Haughey's City Refrigeration. Some of this was spent before the scheme was approved. The road is going to be paid for by central taxation and from Glasgow & East Dunbartonshire council tax payers.

With only one bidder and one contract, cost overruns aren't a surprise. What's new is that the road is now being touted as essential to the Commonwealth Games in 2014. There's a couple of things wrong with this. Glasgow's winning bid said that the infrastructure was already in place.

More obviously mendacious, though, are the claims that they were set to be "the public transport games", a line of bullshit happily parroted by the Evening Times. The Subway was to be extended East, there'd be a new railway station and free buses for visitors. Expect to hear very little of that in the future now they've got their road.

Most intriguing of all is Alex Salmond's bid for more Lottery money for the games, to ensure their "legacy effect". He wants £150M, which just happens to be the (current) overspend on the M74 extension. Just a coincidence that this comes the day after the single-bidder contract was signed?

Don't expect to hear much of this from the craven hacks at Glasgow's newspapers. The Herald greets the road with "a chorus of approval", not seeing fit to speak to a single southsider. Getting away with a 30% overspend against tightened budgets and the evidence from a PLI is indeed quite a feat. Not an admirable one though.

There are journalists there who know their papers' support for the road is self-serving bullshit.Will they step forward? Two reasons why not:

* The Herald & Evening Times have a large depot positioned at the end of the M74
* Their parent group, Newsquest, keeps making noises about needing to cut costs. Will it be journalists, or will it be slightly quicker distribution west of the city?

The whole saga exemplifies the farce of "representative"democracy. All major political parties are in thrall to the business interests promoting this road. All the evidence points against the road, but the people who will be directly affected are the poor, the old and the ill , the least able to speak out for their interests (The PLI noted a street of sheltered housing and two hostels on the route.) Who represents them? They count for nothing against the CBI, the Chamber of Commerce and suburban commuters.

Later this week there should be another article, laying out who is pushing, building and benefiting from the road.


SOURCES

"Games go car free", 9th October 2007.  http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/display.var.1745745.0.games_go_carfree.php
"Salmond launches quest for for £150 million Commonwealth Games funding", 15th February 2008,  http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland/Salmond-launches-quest-for-150.3783334.jp
"60 years and £650m in making, M74 link is reality at last", 15th February 2008,  http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2046566.0.60_years_and_650m_in_making_M74_link_is_reality_at_last.php
PLI Conclusions:  http://scotland.indymedia.org/media/all/display/3951

CH
- Homepage: http://scotland.indymedia.org/newswire/display/5317/index.php

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech