We need to plan for the next 50 years, not one parliamentary term

For some time now I have believed that, whilst there are surely a number of long-term planning strategies for Scotland in place, much of our tactical thinking for the future of Scotland seems to be limited to each four- or five-year term of parliamentary office at best, and off-the-cuff at worst.

Too often we learn of saving a shipyard one day, rejecting a bypass on another, setting up a sports facility in a green belt, ideas for Prestwick Airport, a crossing to Ireland or a tunnel and a double carriageway, in this case, to Mull; none, it seems, are dealt with within an overall strategy for the nation.

We can blame it on the fact that, unlike the Faroes, Scotland is not independent. But it can plan ahead for the day when it will be, and as this day comes ever closer, the need for a master plan for an independent Scotland becomes imperative. This would cover development over the next 25- and 50-year periods possibly.

The plan would be set up by a panel representing as many stakeholders as possible, with different specialist sessions having relevant participants.

Scotland, with its history of Clearances, deindustrialisation, and job-finding over the Border and beyond, finds itself with, for instance, 50% of its private land owned by 432 entities; much of this is “desert” in the sense that it is a barren area of landscape which has been stripped of much of its people and wildlife. It is inconceivable that this state of affairs will continue, but what is the thinking, the planning?

If the nation has to have more population to be sustainable (in every sense), a master plan would set out strategies as to where they are going to live. It would be unlikely that existing large conurbations would further spread like amoeba. And perhaps such as Kelso, Stranraer, Oban, Aviemore, Ullapool, Stornoway and Kirkwall (and other smaller townships) could be planned as “edge cities”.

In such cases, the government may be restricted to having two responsibilities – that of providing the infrastructure and the jobs (by incentivising investors). To this could be the provision of so-called “council housing” which I believe must be brought back onto the agenda. The rest would come from the private sector by and large. There is no future in expecting folk to go out into the sticks without a previous government investment in roads, utilities, social services and jobs.

The master plan would deal in considerable detail with “connectivity” in the form of land, sea and air accessibility. Over the next 50 years, means of transporting people and goods will change possibly in unforeseen ways. What we do know is that merely having private cars made electric will not solve the problem of vehicle congestion: this would increase. Public transport has a potential carrying capacity over 10 times that of private cars; there has to be solutions of getting people into buses.

Within these broad strategies would be the business case for such as a tunnel to Mull. As was mentioned, and from Lesley Riddoch’s film, the Faroes have built 19 tunnels and have another 20 on the drawing boards. The Faroes are thus “connected”. Denmark completed their island connections in the 1950s; Japan, with it 53.85 km tunnel connecting Honshu to Hokkaido in 1985, finally connected all its main islands; Norway is working on it; and so will Scotland with absolute certainty. The connection to Ireland, scoffed at by some, whether by a 24-28 km tunnel from Portpatrick or 20km bridge to the Mull of Kintyre, will surely be built within 50 years, and possibly within 25 (and PM Johnson’s endorsement will not be necessary, thank you!). More challenging will be the crossing to Orkney, opening up “Singapore-like” entrepôt potential from its Scapa Flow deep water port. With the possible exception of the Shetlands (for now), all other main islands in Scotland would be connected by bridge/ tunnel/causeway and be incorporated into a 50-year plan.

And to address the concern of your correspondent, there surely will not be any need for dual-carriageway roads over to the islands, with the exception of the one to Ireland and possibly Orkney. The provision of loos along the HC500, dealing with caravans and increasing road widths are surely not enough to handle what could be a trebling of the tourist numbers within a decade: where are the plans?

Patrick Harvie’s “reimagining what kind of country we want to be“ surely must be done in the context of a national master plan. It is a huge subject, and one, I submit, that has first to be dealt with in its entirety. And if nothing else, this with be of compelling interest to those who we want to vote Yes to independence.

Gordon Benton
Newburgh, Ellon