GREEN campaigners were yesterday disappointed that John Swinney ruled out their calls to spend one per cent of the £820 million roads budget on safe cycling and walking paths, writes Kathleen Nutt.

Reacting to the Budget announcement Emilia Hanna of Friends of the Earth Scotland said boosting the “active travel” infrastructure would have cut air pollution and encouraged people to leave cars at home.

Her organisation wants one per cent of the roads budget to be invested in creating paths and segregated cycle lanes in Scottish towns and cities, similar to cycling networks in other European urban areas.

“Hundreds of people emailed the Finance Secretary and lobbied their MSPs calling for a change in direction on transport policy asking for one per cent of the proposed £820m big-roads budget to be re-allocated to active travel such as cycling lanes and walking paths,” she said.

“By failing to listen to campaigners the Scottish Government has condemned the public to more pollution and more climate emissions by opting to spend twenty times more money on new motorways than on walking and cycling paths.”

Hanna said the decision comes a day after Friends of the Earth estimated 2,500 people in Scotland die a year from air pollution. “The Scottish Government has promised that in four years’ time 10 per cent of all journeys will be made by bike,” she said. “We are currently at under two per cent of trips made by bike so the Government has a mountain to climb.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said it is committed to encouraging healthier and greener travel and is investing more than £1 billion per annum to encourage people out of their cars.

He added: “We remain committed to our shared vision of 10 per cent of everyday journeys being made by bike by 2020 and earlier this financial year committed a further £3.3 million to match last year’s record investment in active travel.”