The Institution of Civil Engineers Scotland (ICE) has challenged all policy-makers to sign-up to a pledge supporting infrastructure maintenance, development and delivery for the benefit of the country, in the run-up to May’s Scottish Parliament elections.

 Following on from their State of the Nation Infrastructure Report launched in November,  ICE’s own Manifesto for Infrastructure sets out a vision of what needs to be done to ensure Scotland has  transport, energy, waste, water and flooding networks fit for the future.

ICE’s manifesto asks for commitment to the future under three broad categories – resilience, delivery and skills – and the Institution is calling for policy-makers of all political persuasions to commit to:

• Enhance the resilience of all networks to climate and demographic change, preparing systems to meet future needs and challenges
• Achieving a long-term, cross-party vision for infrastructure, underpinned by sustainable investment, and delivering maximum value for public money
• Upskill Scotland’s workforce and grow a talent pool of engineers to meet our future infrastructure needs.

The eight-page document lays out why the commitments are needed, gives an analysis of Scotland’s future infrastructure needs, and sets out a ten-point plan of how these commitments can be achieved.

 Director of ICE Scotland, Sara Thiam, commented:

“How we travel and bring water and heat to our homes and businesses is the result of historic investment decisions, but we have an aging infrastructure and need to look to the future.”

“ICE Scotland’s manifesto highlights the issues which will shape the future delivery of infrastructure in Scotland, and offers practical ways forward, and we ask policy-makers to commit to the aims and join the discussion of how we deliver the future infrastructure which Scotland requires.”

The events of recent months including widespread flooding in the North East and Borders and closures of the Forth Road Bridge and M8 motorway have underlined the importance of maintenance investment, ICE said. The severe weather conditions have created storm-damage and disruption and put the UK’s resilience plans to the test.

ICE Scotland’s manifesto provides overarching and specific policy interventions required to support Scotland’s infrastructure ambitions and acknowledges that whatever the result in May, it is vital infrastructure continues to be at the heart of Scotland’s economic plans.

The Manifesto says publicly-funded infrastructure investment has helped connect Scotland’s cities, upgrade aging railway infrastructure, decarbonise energy generation and transmission, improve drinking water quality and driven consistent economic growth since mid-2012.

However, ICE is warning of the need to ensure that the right skills and expertise are in place to tackle the challenges presented by a growing and aging population, growing cities, and an increase in extreme weather events.

On water, ICE says that increased energy efficiency, water conservation, and demand management in the water sector should be central features of future improvement and infrastructure investment, alongside enhanced resilience in treatment and supply.

ICE  is also calling for flood risk adaptation strategies to be integrated into all spatial and infrastructure planning, designed to include the adequate routing of exceptionally high flows.

The Manifeso says resources, skills and capacity to deliver flood risk management need to be ensured for the future, including adequate long-term funding for defence infrastructure maintenance.

The issues are already increasing pressure on UK infrastructure networks, ICE says, changing how people use them and putting a strain on the resources available to fund them. Failure to commit to future infrastructure investment will increase such pressures still further.

Click here to download the Manifesto for Infrastructure: Scotland 2016,