Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Official Report 363KB pdf

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Petitions

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A90/A937 (Safety Improvements) (PE1236)

Agenda item 4 is consideration of all three of our current public petitions.

PE1236 is about the junction at Laurencekirk. The committee has received two update letters since its previous consideration of the petition. The letters are appended to the petition cover note at annexes A and B. Do members have any comments on the letters?

I cannot find them—it is okay, I have found them.

The update is quite encouraging. It has obviously been a long-running issue in the area and some progress seems to have been made on establishing the preferred option. We should try to keep a watching brief.

I am happy enough to take that approach at this stage, although it must be said that some of the information that has come to light indicates that there is still a lack of understanding of the demands on the local transport network in the area. We have received a number of comments about alternative routes and the justification for junction improvement at Laurencekirk, which Transport Scotland seems to confuse or conflate with issues surrounding access to the road from Laurencekirk.

It remains a complex issue and I hope that the communication that is taking place between Transport Scotland, the north east of Scotland transport partnership and the local authority will help their understanding, so that we can get more clarity over time.

Adam Ingram is right that we have had more action on this since we had our meeting with Transport Scotland than there has been for a long time. It is important that an extra £100,000 is being provided for more consultation and more background information on the junction. We should allow that to proceed and keep a watching brief, as Adam said.

Does everyone agree to that?

Members indicated agreement.

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Remote and Rural Areas Transport Provision (Access to Care) (Older People) (PE1424)

PE1424 is on improving transport for older people in remote and rural areas. The committee agreed at its last consideration to look at the issues raised in this petition as part of its inquiry into community transport. Does anyone have any views or comments to offer? Do people consider that when we undertook our community transport inquiry, which, I think it is fair to say, was well received, we took into account the views of older people, and that community transport has a big role to play in improving transport for older people in remote and rural areas?

We must note that our community transport inquiry left us with an unanswered question. As we are all aware, there was a campaign to include community transport in the concessionary travel scheme. It became very clear that, however much we agreed with the objective behind that campaign, the concessionary travel scheme was probably not the way to deliver effective support for community transport, which of course has a big impact on the elderly.

We must find room in future for that unanswered question, or bit of unfinished business. We will have to address that issue. If we are going to conclude that we have addressed the issue—I think that we have addressed it fairly effectively and thoroughly—there remains an unanswered question associated with it, which we will have to address some time in the future.

If no one else has a comment, do I take it that we are saying that we should close the petition?

Perhaps in closing it the convener could write to the minister and draw his attention specifically to that issue.

We will have a debate at the end of October in which that issue could be highlighted.

I am sure that it will be no surprise to the minister when we raise the issue.

Would you prefer to leave it and bring it up in the debate?

We could easily do that, but I do not feel that I need to surprise the minister on the day, if you know what I mean.

I do not think that he will be surprised. I am sure that he will be well prepared to answer this question. Will we just leave it until the debate?

Yes.

Will we close the petition?

Members indicated agreement.

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Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority Local Office Closures (PE1425)

PE1425 is on the closure of local DVLA offices in Scotland. The committee agreed at its last consideration to write to the Scottish Government regarding its response to the UK Government’s consultation on motoring services. Transport Scotland has responded and the letter is appended to the petition’s cover note at annex C.

The committee should continue to take an on-going interest in the issue. The DVLA proposal seeks to close five of its local offices in Scotland and is wide ranging in its impact, affecting Aberdeen, Inverness, Glasgow, Dundee and Edinburgh. I am as yet unclear, notwithstanding the Scottish Government’s representations to the DVLA and the UK Department for Transport, what the full impact of the closures will be in terms of compulsory redundancies.

Even in a situation in which there would be no compulsory redundancies, and I do not know whether that has been confirmed, there could well be implications for the terms and conditions of the employees. I would be interested in keeping an active interest in the proposed closures and in understanding what view the trade unions take of the proposals.

I agree with everything that Jim says, but I also think that we must look at the effect that the closure of the local DVLA offices would have on local businesses. In my previous occupation my company, which had a large fleet of vehicles, used the local DVLA office on a weekly basis.

I know that many motor trade companies in and around the Edinburgh area used the DVLA local office, so much so that there was a queueing system—when you entered the building you had to pull a ticket and wait for at least half an hour before you were called. Before we look at the petition in any further detail we must understand the impact that the DVLA proposal would have on local businesses in and around the five sites in Scotland that have local offices.

I am getting the sense that folk would like to keep this open and that we should perhaps write to the trade unions. Is there a motor trade association?

Yes. That would be good.

Yes, there is the Scottish Motor Trade Association. Public transport is also affected.

Yes. I know who the person is but I forget—

The Confederation of Passenger Transport Scotland.

Perhaps we should write to freight organisations as well.

Yes. A response from freight organisations would be handy.

We will keep it open. We could write to the Government to see—

—what its response would be. Yes.

The clerks will note that we will write to those organisations and when we get their responses we will consider the petition further.

That is all for today. I close the meeting. The next meeting, which we have discussed, is our informal briefing on procurement.

Meeting closed at 10:51.