The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Pupils urge Tay road link rethink
Perth environment protesters detail ‘concerns’ in letter to council
Perthshire youngsters have called for the controversial Cross Tay Link Road plans to be halted until they are made more environmentally friendly. More than 100 demonstrators marched through Perth city centre yesterday to hand a letter to the council with a list of climate change “concerns and suggestions”.
They included re-thinking the link road and dedicating at least 10% of the authority’s transport budget to active travel. The protesters were among thousands of Scots taking part in the Global Climate Strike Campaign.
Elsewhere in Perthshire, school pupils in Crieff protested at the town’s James Square.
Tayside and Fife youngsters were among thousands of Scots protesting against climate change yesterday.
Pupils missed school to take part in the Global Climate Strike Campaign, calling for government action on the environmental crisis.
Hundreds of youngsters gathered in Dundee City Square yesterday and some held a “die-in”, lying on the ground pretending to be dead, calling the move a “grim but necessary message”.
S4-6 pupils from Angus schools marked the strike by holding a walkout at Dundee and Angus College’s Arbroath campus during a senior phase criminology class.
Schools across Tayside and Fife encouraged participation in the climate strikes if parental consent was given.
Dundee City Council said no children would be punished for their absences.
Niamh Baines, 14, said the strike was necessary to highlight the crisis.
“Protesting is important because there is no reason to go to school if we’re not looking after the planet,” she said.
“It’s good to see everyone striking for change. It’s our future so we have to be able to act on it”.
Dundee High School pupil Alex Fish, 17, told protesters they had to be “relentless” in demanding action, adding: “The reason I’m here is that the climate crisis is real.”
He said: “It’s a problem for everybody and no one seems to be accepting that. Governments and people all over the world seem to be ignoring the issue and that’s why we’re here today, to try to get something done about it.”
It was not just youngsters in the crowd as pensioners Ann Ferguson, 73 and Lesley Walton, 90, joined in solidarity, saying the government must take responsibility to fix the mistakes of the past.
Les said: “We didn’t realise it was mostly for younger people when we were on our way here, but we’re glad we came.
“A lot of people in our generation still don’t seem to understand what the urgency is with climate change. We are going to have to act fast and start making changes before it is too late because there really isn’t another alternative.”
More demonstrations were held in Perthshire, Fife, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
In St Andrews, hundreds of students, schoolchildren and townspeople gathered on a beach to demand action.
Following a march from St Salvator’s Quadrangle, people lined up on West Sands and looked out towards the sea.
One of the organisers, Lea Weimann, said the action illustrated the strength of feeling that much more needs to be done to tackle climate change.
She said: “We are at a critical point in history where we can still decide how our future is going to look, and each of us can contribute to that.”
At the peaceful demonstration, protesters also urged St Andrews University to join universities around the globe in declaring a climate emergency.
A petition has been launched demanding a declaration from the university.
In Perth, protesters marched through the city centre to deliver a letter of “concerns and suggestions” to the council.
Demonstrators on foot and bikes headed along Caledonian Road and down South Street, spilling on to the road, before making their way along the River Tay to 2 High Street.
There, S3 Perth High pupil Cerys McGroarty read out the letter highlighting a series of steps they’d like to see the local authority take, including rethinking the contentious Cross Tay Link Road (CTLR) plans.
Suggestions included pledging at least 10% of the council’s transport budget to active travel and pausing the CTLR until further emissions analysis has been carried out.
The group believes the traffic forecasting already conducted is not sufficient.
The letter was handed to depute provost Willie Wilson who thanked the crowd for their efforts and firmly stated “we need to do more.”
Elsewhere in Perthshire, school pupils in Crieff protested with placards at the town’s James Square.