Devolved powers are what the UK Government have defined for each area. In this case what is devolved to the Scottish Government has the same principle as what is devolved to local councils in Yorkshire - which if you include the stolen areas has a bigger population than Scotland (5.5m vs 5.45m). The UK Government now has reserved powers over transport links with UK and wider factors. So all UK residents have a valid say on the A75 if it affects the ability to travel to NI.Phil wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 18:35Firstly, you may well considered their stance 'misplaced' - but as residents of Sussex, what you or I may think is irrelevant. Due to Devolution the ONLY people whose opinion actually does matter is the residents of Scotland / Wales - who many in England forget do have the power to ditch such opinions by electing a party which takes a different view. Put in this way if the Scottish Government was run by the Conservatives then I doubt such anti-car opinions would continue.avtur wrote: ↑Sat Nov 27, 2021 18:59In my opinion this is misplaced, we are firmly on a trajectory of EV adoption, by the time these schemes are in place the level of EV adoption will be even higher, therefore the arguments being made simply do not add up, IMHO.Phil wrote: ↑Fri Nov 26, 2021 23:12
Both the Scottish and Welsh Governments have taken a principled stance that they will NOT build any more roads due to the effects of climate change bought on by mass car travel. If congestion is a problem then people should be taking the bus / train / using park and ride schemes is their view.
The Welsh and Scottish administrations are not so timid (I don't for a minute believe that the Welsh / Scotts are any less wedded to their cars than the English), but so far the Governments there have not been punished electorally which suggests such policies might not necessarily be the as vote losing as many seem to assume.
From the public facing evidence the stance by neither Wales nor Scotland policy on private vehicles is driven by a coherent policies. In Scotland it looks to be a combination of default anti English/Boris sentiment (chose as appropriate), prioritising SNP areas and sucking up to the Green coalition partnership. In Wales it looks different in that internal welsh issues (North vs South) and PC cooperation means that the current pause could be environmental, or it could be to re-priorities internal traffic schemes. According to my mid-Wales relatives Monmouth/Gwent and Fflint/Denbigh are seen as far to English friendly. It may be apocryphal but the WAG express from North to South was diverted onto the less convenient route between Chester and Shrewsbury as too many people were using it to get to Crewe to travel into England and not to Cardiff.
As for accountability I doubt that there is anything the Welsh or Scottish bodies could do, in terms of transport policy, which would affect the electability of the current main parties. The drivers are elsewhere.