Around £250,000 of taxpayers’ money was allocated to public consultation events for the Scottish Government’s plan to lower the speed limit for cars on single carriageway roads.
New figures show that between November 1 and January 31, the Scottish Government had already spent its budget on hotels, flights and ferries, as well as venue hire and banner costs with a month still remaining of the consultation.
In total, more than £124,000 had been forked out in this time, with £20,000 splashed on hotels, flights and ferries for government officials to attend the events.
A further £96,000 had been spent on wages for those hosting the public consultation, £5,000 for venue hire, and almost £3,500 for banner costs.
The Transport Scotland consultation, which ran until March 5, proposes reducing the speed limit from 60mph to 50mph for cars.
Under the plans, the limit for HGVs would increase from 40mph to 50mph on single carriageways and 50mph to 60mph on dual carriageways.
More than 1,100 people have now signed a Scottish Conservative campaign calling on the SNP government to stop its “war on motorists”.
Scottish Conservative MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Alexander Burnett, whose constituency includes the A96, said: “The eye-watering sums allocated to this campaign should be put towards improving our roads rather than senseless proposals like this.
“Instead of taking action to protect drivers, SNP ministers seem intent on punishing them to make up for their own failures of not upgrading roads such as the A96, the A9 and the A90.
“It’s absurd that £250,000 of taxpayers’ money has been allocated to these plans that only seek to hammer rural motorists who rely on a car.
“50mph speed limits on single carriageway roads will penalise ordinary people, without cutting down on dangerous driving, and will just add to the workload of roads policing officers.
“Fiona Hyslop and the SNP government should scrap these proposals and finally deliver improvements to roads like the A96 that motorists have been waiting almost two decades for.”
