Letter: Bridge resistance

The fact that building another Forth road bridge came 24th out of 25 in the Scottish people's list of priorities for the incoming Holyrood Parliament (your report, 12 April) comes as no surprise to members of the ForthRight Alliance, who have long known that our politicians are massively out of step on this issue with those they purport to represent.

Moreover, that this result was obtained after it had been announced that the cost of the bridge had been reduced from 2.3 billion to 1.6bn only reinforces our belief that the Scottish Government has failed to persuade the electorate of the need for this additional crossing.

The reason for this should be obvious - the existing bridge can and is being fixed.

Given doubts now being expressed in the professional journals about the viability of the winning bid, we repeat our call that the contract to build this new bridge should most definitely not be signed in the coming few weeks - just before the new Scottish Parliament is elected.

Not only is this inappropriate in the "purdah" period but, more importantly, it would also tie the hands of those conducting post-election negotiations to form a government and preclude scrutiny of this contract and the need for it by incoming parliamentarians.

Signing this contract is not a priority for the Scottish people - neither should it be for the outgoing Scottish Government.

Lawrence Marshall

ForthRight Alliance

Rose Street

Edinburgh