Report to the People
26th May 2003

Getting Greenock Moving

As the 32 page full colour souvenir pullouts in your morning paper, the pundits queuing up to share their thoughts over the airwaves and the mountain of commemorative tat now on sale in every newsagent, baker’s and petrol station remind us, this has been one of the most dramatic ends to the football season in living memory.

There’s no doubt that Celtic’s European adventures, the knife-edge SPL run-in and, of course, Morton’s triumphant promotion have made the last few weeks a stressful time for football fans.  But the frayed nerves of the Bhoys in Seville , the Boys in Blue and the Cappielow faithful were like rods of steel compared to those of Scottish Executive Ministers when Jack McConnell was preparing to appoint his cabinet last week.

No matter how strong your record or assured your performance in the Chamber, the days and hours leading up to your phone call from the boss drag by like a week in the jail (so I’m told). 

But once a reshuffle actually begins, it’s all over in a few hours and the relieved Ministers turn their attention to getting on top of their brief.

One of the things new Transport Minister, Nicol Stephen, will find on his desk will be my call for an independent inquiry into the way his department carries out – or, more accurately, doesn’t carry out – building works.

Think, for example, about the West Station Bridge fiasco.  Anyone who’s ever driven through Greenock after safety fears forced the bridge to close in April 2000 knows full well about the disruption being caused.  But ever since the money was made available to replace the bridge, progress has been like pulling teeth.  There has been delay after delay and excuse after excuse.  The latest apparently unforeseen difficulty, over land acquisition, is still not resolved.

I know this is a complex engineering work.  I also know that legal wrangles take time.  And I can even accept that the odd snag may arise once a project is underway.

But I cannot accept that an organisation which is working as it should would take three years just to put a contract out to tender.

We need to find out why not only this, but other similar projects (the Cloch Road End roundabout is another example), are being so poorly overseen.  And that means a proper independent inquiry.

I don’t kid myself for a minute that getting one will be easy – the Minister’s Civil Servants will see to that.  But, with some persistence, we might well get to the bottom of this.

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