Further congestion is all that Linlithgow residents can look forward to for the foreseeable future. The Scottish Executive has announced a blanket presumption against new motorway junctions as part of its Scottish Planning Policy. The means that the must hoped for all way-junction on the M9 at Burghmuir, to the East of the town, appears dead and buried.
Neither West Lothian Council nor the Scottish Executive are prepared to put up the funding required to meet the growing demands of development in the town funnelling extra traffic through town to reach the local approach for traffic to the West.
A 1993 report by Halcrow Fox predicted a 25 per cent reduction in traffic through Linlithgow High Street if Burghmuir was made an all-points junction. Considering the increase in population in parts of Linlithgow since 1993 and the plans for more these figures may very well be underestimates by now.
Much as I campaign for public transport I realise that the way the road management around Linlithgow was initially planned, and has since been developed, is proving to be a farce. It is just another example of one consideration for Livingston at the heart of local governemnt and another for the outlying council areas.
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