Almost 100 arch-critics line up to try to stop new Forth bridge

Published on Monday 1 February 2010 21:53

MAJOR landowners and businesses are among those lodging 88 objections to the planned new Forth crossing, the Scottish Parliament has announced.

They include the Earl of Rosebery, who owns the Dalmeny Estate; the Hopetoun Estate and Trust; the Dundas Castle Estate; and various farmers. Network Rail and Deep Sea World, the aquarium in North Queensferry, are among companies objecting.

The project, which is expected to cost up to 2.3 billion, is also opposed by Edinburgh and West Lothian councils.

And it has run into opposition from environmental groups, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and Scottish Badgers. A series of residents' groups in South Queensferry have also objected, together with community organisations in nearby Cramond, Kirkliston, Newton, Dundas Home Farm.

Two MSPs are also on the objectors' list: Edinburgh West Liberal Democrat Margaret Smith, who represents South Queensferry, and Linlithgow Labour member Mary Mulligan.

A four-strong Holyrood committee will tomorrow meet to start scrutinising a Parliamentary bill for the project, which is set to be approved in a year's time. Construction is due to begin on the crossing just west of the Forth Road Bridge later in 2011, with the bridge opened at the end of 2016.

Ministers have said the new crossing is required because lorries may be banned from the existing bridge some time after 2017, if current work to halt its main cable corrosion fails.

The Earl of Rosebery told The Scotsman that his concerns included the new bridge being a motorway, which would hamper estate vehicles such as tractors and JCBs getting across the river.

He is also in disagreement with the Scottish Government's Transport Scotland agency over land required for bus lanes on a widened road link to the existing bridge.

The earl echoed discontent from residents about the consultation process. He said: "If there had been more time between publication of what land was required and the deadline for objections – which covered the Christmas period – a lot of these things could have been sorted out."

Network Rail said it opposed the compulsory acquisition of land in Inverkeithing and North Queensferry.

Deep Sea World lodged its objection because of the threatened loss of its 200-space overspill car park to make way near the north end of the bridge.

The RSPB's concerns are understood to relate to a special protection area for wildlife on inter-tidal mudflats on the Forth.

Details of the objections have yet to be published, with many of the others likely to focus on details of the scheme, such as the loss of land or the impact of construction work.

Further objections, including those from Edinburgh airport and Rosyth dockyard owners Babcock International, are purely technical in nature.