I would like to see these changes happen in Brisbane, all of Australia and all of the world of course. What a better way to improve public transport to the levels it needs to be than to have the people who pay for it and make the decisions about it, catch it! Go you Scots!
MURDO MACLEOD
Sunday 21st January 2007
From Scotsman (Scotland)
GET the bus, minister. Senior politicians and top civil servants will be forced out of their luxury limousines and onto public transport under a Scottish Labour manifesto pledge.
In a bid to appear more environmentally friendly, the party wants to crack down on the use of chauffeured vehicles and taxis by ministers and officials for trips, some of which could be walked in minutes.
It emerged last year that Scottish ministers had been driven the equivalent of 17 times around the world in the previous 12 months, despite urging voters to rely more on public transport.
Their trips generated an estimated 127 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. Transport Minister Tavish Scott has used taxpayer-funded cars to make 250-mile round trips to catch flights home to his Shetland constituency for the weekend.
As well as the environmental cost, the Executive spends £575,000 a year on fuel and salaries related to its fleet of 22 cars and has spent almost £1m on new vehicles since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament. It also spends an estimated £650,000 a year on taxis.
Ministers regularly use the cars to travel between the Scottish Parliament and the Executive's offices at St Andrew's House, a journey that only takes about eight minutes on foot.
But that is about to change, according to the latest draft of the Scottish Labour policy forum document which will form the basis of the manifesto for the Holyrood elections.
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