Letter: Building bridges

You report (26 March) that First Minister Alex Salmond, speaking from South Queensferry, described the proposed new road crossing of the Forth there as "Scotland's bridge of recovery". But there are many, many ways in which £1.6 billion of public monies could otherwise be spent.

Even if one accepts this "saving" of 700 million on the previous estimate for the cost of this additional bridge - and finance secretary John Swinney spoke of only 200m being saved - this is still a figure which, according to Shelter Scotland, would allow the construction 54,261 homes with the capacity to house up to 173,913 people.

Given that Audit Scotland have recently reported that 2.25bn is required to repair Scotland's trunk and local roads, this new estimate of the cost of the bridge would allow 71 per cent of all such roads to be brought up to an acceptable standard. More- over, such expenditure would provide employment and income to benefit communities across the length and breadth of Scotland - with local firms being far more involved than will ever be the case with a consortium selected to build a bridge whose members are rather spread across the length and breadth of the world.

If Mr Salmond truly wishes to spend for recovery - an honourable choice in and of itself - then he's backed the wrong horse. Rather than spend 1.6bn on a bridge we don't need, he should have prioritised spending instead on homes, roads, schools and hospitals - for the benefit of the many, not the few.

LAWRENCE MARSHALL

Chair, ForthRight Alliance

Rose Street

Edinburgh