Aberdeen City Council Papers to Willie Young's Own Finance Committee Demolish Labour's Stance on Haudagain
>> 13 June 2013
Labour candidate for Aberdeen Donside Willie Young has been left facing serious questions after an Aberdeen City Council paper to his own finance committee completely undermined his stance on the Haudagain roundabout.
The Labour candidate has repeatedly called for work at the traffic blackspot to begin immediately.
As well as showing no consideration for the needs of Middlefield residents, closing the Haudagain before the AWPR is complete would cause a horrendous traffic situation to get immeasurably worse.
The SNP Government are delivering the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route and have promised to deliver and pay for improvements to the Haudagain as part of the project once the AWPR is in place to alleviate congestion.
Commenting, SNP candidate for Aberdeen Donside Mark McDonald said:
“The report going before the Finance & Resources Committee – the committee which Willie Young himself chairs – makes it crystal clear that it will take three-and-a-half years to move people in Middlefield out of their homes and into other properties.
“It is there in black and white in the papers he will be discussing, and there is simply no way for him to escape that fact. This dynamite revelation demolishes Labour's bogus stance on the Haudagain roundabout.
“It means that every time Willie Young tries to claim it can be done more quickly, he is guilty of either wilfully misleading the people of Donside or simply not knowing what he is talking about as council finance convener.
“People in Aberdeen Donside deserve better than someone who wants to send the bulldozers through Middlefield before the people living there have new homes to move into.
“Trying to close the Haudagain to start work now would simply cause even more traffic chaos, and leave people living in the area without homes to live in.
“It is utterly dishonest to suggest otherwise - and Willie Young has some serious explaining to do to the people of Donside.
“Why has he continued to claim that work on the Haudagain could begin immediately when his own council officers are telling him that it can't?
"The reality is that after decades of neglect by the other parties, the SNP are delivering the by-pass and will also deliver the improvements to Haudagain as part of our billion pound package of investment for Aberdeen."
“It is there in black and white in the papers he will be discussing, and there is simply no way for him to escape that fact. This dynamite revelation demolishes Labour's bogus stance on the Haudagain roundabout.
“It means that every time Willie Young tries to claim it can be done more quickly, he is guilty of either wilfully misleading the people of Donside or simply not knowing what he is talking about as council finance convener.
“People in Aberdeen Donside deserve better than someone who wants to send the bulldozers through Middlefield before the people living there have new homes to move into.
“Trying to close the Haudagain to start work now would simply cause even more traffic chaos, and leave people living in the area without homes to live in.
“It is utterly dishonest to suggest otherwise - and Willie Young has some serious explaining to do to the people of Donside.
“Why has he continued to claim that work on the Haudagain could begin immediately when his own council officers are telling him that it can't?
"The reality is that after decades of neglect by the other parties, the SNP are delivering the by-pass and will also deliver the improvements to Haudagain as part of our billion pound package of investment for Aberdeen."
The Finance and Resources Committee papers can be viewed at http://committees.aberdeencity.gov.uk/ (item 7.4)
