Public Petitions Committee, 14 Dec 1999

Meeting date: Tuesday, December 14, 1999

Official Report 155KB pdf

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Progress

The next item on the agenda is consideration of the progress of current petitions. Before I ask members if there are any issues that they want to raise on specific petitions, I should say that we have information on petition PE30, on heavy traffic on Almondell Terrace in Livingston, West Lothian.

We agreed to write to East of Scotland Water, West Lothian Council and the local chief constable about the matter. We have had a response from Stirling Water, which is part of East of Scotland Water. It has been involved in discussions with the local councillor, a representative of local residents, the local MSP, Bristow Muldoon, and officials from West Lothian Council. Stirling Water has agreed to implement speed restriction measures as soon as possible. It will keep in touch with residents and continue to monitor the situation. The local authority will consider the long-term suitability of the road for such traffic and we are awaiting a response on that. That is a minor success.

One of those consumer programmes would call it a result.

Do members have any more issues that they wish to raise? If there are any other issues that members would like to raise later, they should contact the clerk after the meeting so that they can be put on the agenda for the next meeting.

It has been concluded that the demands of PE2 have been met, up to a point, by their inclusion in the strategic roads review. However, that does not clear until work has been achieved. I would therefore like an assurance that the matter will remain on file and will not just disappear.

That is a fair point.

A large number of the petitions that this committee considers are sent to the Scottish Executive for a response. It might be appropriate in some cases to refer petitions to ministers, as I suggested earlier. I am happy that the Justice and Home Affairs Committee took evidence from the Carbeth hutters. That showed that petitions can make an impact, are considered seriously by committees, and contribute to the democratic process.

That is an important point. I know that that is not the case with petitions to the Westminster Parliament, which tend to disappear from sight. I am glad that committees are taking seriously the petitions referred to them, taking evidence and making progress on those matters. That is encouraging for the work of the Parliament.