New fall-out as Darling burns his bridges

• UK Transport Secretary approves of new Forth road bridge idea

• First Minister dismissed idea two months ago as "stupid" without assessment

• Executive denies policy on a new bridge has changed following intervention

Key quote

"It is totally irresponsible for anyone to commit the taxpayer to having to cough up the half a billion pounds that will be needed for a new road bridge without first fully examining reports yet to be published on the condition of the existing bridge" - Duncan McLaren, chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland

Story in full

ALISTAIR Darling, the Transport Secretary, yesterday became the second Cabinet minister in a week to upstage the Scottish Executive when he supported the idea of a new road bridge across the Forth.

He gave his unequivocal backing to a new 500 million link despite the fact that only two months ago Jack McConnell, the First Minister, said it would be "stupid" to agree to any such plan without waiting for an assessment of the current bridge.

Last night, Mr Darling, also Secretary of State for Scotland, was accused of electioneering after speaking out while campaigning for the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election.

The minister, who spoke out against a second bridge ten years ago, said: "The key thing now is to campaign for a second bridge because of the fact that the existing bridge is not going to last as long as people thought."

Opposition politicians said Labour was in disarray, while environmental groups, who were key to halting a second bridge a decade ago, hinted they would oppose any new proposal.

Duncan McLaren, the chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: "It is totally irresponsible for anyone to commit the taxpayer to having to cough up the half a billion pounds that will be needed for a new road bridge without first fully examining reports yet to be published on the condition of the existing bridge."

While Mr Darling's surprise intervention will delight those who support a new link between Fife and Edinburgh, it has also renewed a political row over who is running Scotland.

Only last week, Mr McConnell was "bounced" into announcing his opposition to plans for a 4 peak-hour toll on the Forth Road Bridge after Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, publicly attacked the proposed increase.

Now, in a move that mirrors Mr Brown's intervention, Mr Darling has given his full support to the idea of a new road crossing over the Forth, weeks after Mr McConnell ruled it out in the short term. On 17 November, the First Minister told MSPs: "It would be particularly stupid of us to start to carry out the work on a new Forth road bridge without having completed the analysis that will tell us what kind of facilities are required and what the exact nature of the current problem is."

A spokeswoman confirmed yesterday that the Executive's position on a new bridge had not changed - no decision would be taken until a full report on the condition of the existing bridge had been studied by ministers. She said: "We have not got enough information to say whether or not we will need to build a replacement bridge.

"It is dependent on the state of the cables and whether or not they can be replaced. We will have an independent audit in by the end of this month. We will then have engineering reports on whether we can, in fact, replace the cables."

While Mr Darling is Transport Secretary, he has no remit over transport policy in Scotland. That is decided by the Executive. But, as the "voice" of Scotland in the UK Cabinet, he carries huge political clout and his comments on such a sensitive issue as a second Forth road bridge will put pressure on Mr McConnell to accede to his wishes.

Sources close to the First Minister played down Mr Darling's remarks. A spokesman said Mr McConnell was "more than relaxed" about them. He went on: "There is an election on. This was a Labour Party event. This is an example of the Labour Party being in tune with what the people of Fife want."

It was a Labour Party event and Mr Darling may have been speaking, ostensibly, as a Labour Party politician, but he is also Scottish Secretary and the people of Fife will expect his views to be acted on.

Privately, it is likely that Mr McConnell will be angry that, yet again, he is having to pick up the pieces after an intervention by a Westminster politician into areas outside their domain.

Both Mr Darling and Mr Brown waded into the debate about the Forth bridges - Mr Brown on tolls and Mr Darling on a second bridge - because of the forthcoming by-election.

They are desperate to avoid defeat on 9 February and want to make sure Labour is not outflanked by opposition parties on the biggest issue for commuters. That is why they felt it necessary to knock down the idea of increased tolls and talk up the idea of a new bridge.

The Forth Estuary Transport Authority has backed proposals for a new "multi-modal" bridge over the Forth, carrying trains, trams and road vehicles.

A spokesman said yesterday that FETA welcomed any backing for a new bridge but stressed that the original had to be maintained, and the only way of coping with traffic flows over the estuary was to have two bridges working in tandem.

Last night, opposition politicians delighted in the confusion in Labour ranks.

Carrie Ruxton, the Tory candidate in the Fife by-election said: "Unusually, Alistair Darling is right. We do need to plan a new bridge because, if we don't act swiftly, there will be no bridge across the Forth because the current one is crumbling. The problem is that Jack McConnell seems clueless about what to do."

Murdo Fraser, the deputy leader of the Scots Tories, said: "There seems to be a monumental power struggle going on between Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling and Jack McConnell over who runs Scotland. You would have thought three grown-up politicians from the same party could reach agreement on such a vital policy area."

Douglas Chapman, the SNP by-election candidate, said: "If the Labour hierarchy can't agree with each other, why should the people of Dunfermline agree with any of them?"

After minister's U-turn, new 'double-decker' crossing could cost taxpayer up to 1bn

TEN years ago, Alistair Darling helped drive a new Forth Road Bridge off the political agenda - but his intervention yesterday could help see it finally happen.

The former member of the ForthRight Alliance, which campaigned against Tory plans for a second crossing in the 1990s, now wants a replacement structure - even though it is not yet clear if the existing bridge is irreversibly corroding. Mr Darling helped scupper the scheme for a parallel second road bridge at Queensferry, which had been well advanced before the Conservatives were ousted at the 1997 election.

However, the scheme was already back on the cards before it emerged two months ago that the bridge's main cables were in a far worse condition than realised, raising fears that the crossing could have to close to lorries in 2013 and all traffic six years later. Earlier last year, the Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA), which runs the 41-year-old bridge, had narrowly agreed to include a new crossing in its transport blueprint and dusted off the new bridge plans that had been shelved for a decade.

FETA's move came in the face of increasing congestion on the bridge, which carries twice as many vehicles as its 12 million-a-year design load.

However, it agreed that if a second bridge was built, one lane in each direction on each bridge should be reserved for buses and vehicles with more than one occupant.

The Scottish Executive, which would have the final say, as yet remains unconvinced of the need for a new crossing.

It had planned to leave the issue to its strategic projects review, which starts next year.

Holyrood ministers will now consider the position when they receive an independent assessment of the corrosion findings, expected within weeks.

However, should they ultimately be forced to accept that a replacement bridge is required, Alastair Andrew, FETA's general manager, has suggested it could be a double-decker structure, because of the extra land that would otherwise be required at either end.

A new bridge is expected to cost at least 500 million, including approach roads.

Building it to accommodate trams would add a further 60 to 100 million, and the total would top 1 billion if it had to be strengthened to carry trains.

A double-decker bridge, with two levels for road traffic, could cost even more.

Mr Andrew has estimated it would take ten to 11 years to complete the project.

That means even if a decision were taken to proceed now, it might be too late to prevent the threatened lorry ban on the current crossing.

ALASTAIR DALTON

TRANSPORT CORRESPONDENT