Waverley Rail
Thursday, June 28 2007
Scottish Borders Councillors are calling for an urgent meeting between members of the Waverley Rail Partnership and the Minister for Transport and the Cabinet Secretary for Finance to discuss the future of the Waverley Rail project.
The following motion was passed at the full Council meeting on Thursday, 28 June 2007:
Motion
The Council notes with regret the statement made in the Scottish Parliament yesterday by the Minister for Transport about the Scottish Executive’s future funding commitment for the Waverley Railway project.
The Council rejects the Minister’s contention that local partners should be responsible for meeting additional costs accruing to the Project.
The Council believes that the City of Edinburgh Council, Midlothian Council and the Scottish Borders Council, being the members of the Waverley Rail Partnership, have fully achieved their objectives in taking the re-instatement of the Waverley Railway line from its origins in a powerful expression of local community support through to a position of establishing the validity the business case.
The business case was tested through a prolonged process of scrutiny carried out by the all-party Parliamentary Committee on the Waverley Railway.
The Council believes that the Waverley Rail Partnership has fulfilled its role in delivering the business case, and achieving an agreement to assign powers for the construction and delivery of the project to Transport Scotland.
The Waverley railway line will deliver a key strategic addition to the national rail infrastructure. It should now be funded on that basis.
The Council believes that these matters were resolved and settled in the outline agreement established between the Partnership and Transport Scotland, as reported to Council on 29 March 2007.
The Council calls for a meeting to be held between the Waverley Rail Partnership and the Minister for Transport and the Cabinet Secretary for Finance at the earliest opportunity to enable this project, which is essential to the economic development of the Borders, to proceed as planned.
Proposed: Councillor David Parker
Seconded: Councillor Jim Fullarton
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