New bridge payment plan questioned

Published on Wednesday 10 December 2008 10:28

Labour today called on ministers to explain how they plan to pay for the new Forth Road Bridge.

The call came as transport minister Stewart Stevenson prepared to set out the government's big-ticket transport priorities for the period from 2012 until 2022.

Mr Stevenson will detail the outcome of the "strategic transport review" in a statement to Parliament.

The Labour demand on the funding of the Forth bridge came ahead of the statement.

Finance secretary John Swinney announced last December that ministers have ruled out building a tunnel and were proposing a new bridge, at a cost of between 3.25 billion and 4.22 billion,

Labour's Andy Kerr said today: "The Scottish Government must explain how they intend to fund the new Forth Road Bridge.

"The new crossing will be an acid test for the Scottish Futures Trust, which was supposed to be the SNP's big idea for major projects.

"Instead, it has been an embarrassing failure.

"The SNP's inability to bring forward a workable model for funding public sector construction projects is Alex Salmond's personal contribution to the unemployment statistics."

The transport review whose findings will be announced today began in the summer of 2006.

It will make recommendations for transport projects for the years up to 2022.

But it will not cover projects already committed to, like the Borders rail link, the M74 extension, and the Aberdeen western by-pass, nor will it cover air or sea transport projects.