Transport budget warning

SCOTLAND'S entire transport budget will be "mortgaged" unless tolls are introduced to fund the new Forth Road Bridge, Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce chief executive Ron Hewitt has warned.

The SNP announced the abolition of bridge tolls soon after coming to power in 2007 and intends to fund the new 2 billion crossing from its normal budget.

Mr Hewitt told the chamber's annual general meeting that the Scottish Futures Trust must deliver capital programmes "unfettered by political ideology".

He went on: "Who could now argue against tolling the Forth Bridge, for example?"