‘CTLR will turn Perth into a ghost town’
Perth could become a “ghost town” if the local authority is allowed to press ahead with the controversial Cross Tay Link Road (CTLR) project this week, a councillor has claimed.
Councillor Alasdair Bailey fears the council’s determination to build the bypass in order to “unlock” more land outside of Perth for new developments and encourage investment in these areas will discourage people from investing in existing properties lying empty within the city centre.
The Carse of Gowrie representative believes this lack of investment could lead to fewer people opting to visit the city to spend their money, and businesses already struggling to recover from the impact of Covid-19 seeing further reductions in footfall and trade in future.
He told the PA: “The city centre already has many vacant properties.
“Spending a massive amount of taxpayers’ money on a bypass that will not only take trade away but which will also move all new investment to the countryside around Scone is therefore very questionable indeed.
“Once the road is built, why would a person needing office space invest to renovate one of our beautiful city centre properties when ample cheap out of town newbuilds will be available?”
Councillor Bailey is also unconvinced by headlinegrabbing claims the council has made in recent weeks that the creation of the new road will trigger £1 billion worth of private sector investment “in housing and employment”.
He has said he will now attempt to convince a majority of his elected colleagues to vote to pause the project until the full impact of COVID-19 on the country becomes clearer and that figure can be reexamined with the crisis and its after-effects in mind.
City officials are scheduled to ask the full council to commit to spending £118 million on the road during a virtual capital budget meeting being held tomorrow.
Councillor Bailey said: “We now face a completely new reality compared to when the models were created that gave [council leader Murray Lyle] his £1bn investment figure – millions more people working from home, growing unemployment which is driving up the gap between the richest and poorest in our area and a social care crisis are just three of the things that undoubtedly mean that the previously calculated upsides of this road need rethinking.
“There are so many new and different challenges on the council’s finances and there is currently no way of knowing whether we can afford this road alongside addressing the very real problems that we face in social care, our ageing school buildings, and lack of affordable housing.
“It is incredibly risky to approve this road now based on pre-COVID numbers when we know so much has changed in recent months. I’m calling on council colleagues to join me in calling for a pause on this project until we know that we can afford the road alongside addressing our other priorities and we have revised figures for the benefits it will have.
“The council needs time to take account of the new reality we all live in and to revisit the numbers to address these unknowns.
“The earliest that can possibly happen is February 2021 once we know more about how much money we have and have had the benefit of a full budget setting cycle for the council to decide how it wants to split that money across all of its priorities.”
Councillor Bailey’s opinions were echoed yesterday by the Perth Historical Quarter group who also expressed concerns about PKC pressing ahead with the CTLR without consulting anyone outside of the local authority on whether the project ought to be a priority right now.
A spokesperson for the group said: “There has been a dire lack of proper consultation about this.
“This is not the time to be spending huge amounts of money on major capital projects. They are rushing things through at the moment and it’s really not on.”
And turning to the council’s economic case for the new road the spokesperson went on: “All these figures are based on studies that were done pre-COVID and they were questionable when they were done.
“Are housebuilders really going to press on with their plans in the current climate? And you have to remember when the council asks their consultants for these studies to be done they brief the consultants so they get the answers back that they want.”
Council leader Murray Lyle has previously said of the CTLR plan: “My administration believes the crossing is fundamental to Perth’s continued prosperity in the years and decades ahead. We will be making every effort to secure approval of the council at the capital budget meeting.”