Chamber and committees

The National Waste Plantarget of recycling and composting 25% of municipal solid waste by 2006 appliesto Scotland as a whole, rather than individual localauthorities. Integrated Waste Management Plans under the Local Government inScotland Act 2003 will lay down specific targets for local authorities.

However, in the bids to theStrategic Waste Fund which have been funded or which are under assessment, fivelocal authorities estimate that they will achieve 25% recycling and compostingof municipal waste by 2006 and 15 (including three in a joint bid) that theywill achieve more than 25%. A further eight bids have been received and are tobe assessed and four more are expected.

The five authorities thatestimate achieving 25% are Aberdeen City, Glasgow, Argyll and Bute, Fife and Dumfries and Galloway. The 15 authorities that estimate achieving morethan 25% are Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee, East Ayrshire, Inverclyde, Moray, NorthAyrshire, Orkney, Perth and Kinross, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, WesternIsles and, in a joint bid, Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-3236. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for whichcan be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

The £44.8 million spent on restorationwork in Scotland’s canals in 2000-01 included funding for the restorationof the Millennium Link. The Millennium Link was a major project which involved thebuilding of bridges, tunnels, new sections of canals, and the Falkirk Wheel.

Detailsof the funding allocated by the Scottish Executive to British Waterways this yearcan be found in the answer given to question S2W-2803 on 30 September 2003. Allanswers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website,the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

We recognise that it is imperativeto the success of the scheme that the register is kept up to date at all times.It is for this reason that we propose that the register will be web-based and willbe automatically updated as an application progresses and reflect changes to debtpayment programmes. Details of the information that it is proposed be held on theregister are set out in part 4 of the draft regulations.

The regulations do make provisionfor the consent of every creditor. However, they will also provide for where thatconsent may be dispensed with. This is to take account of the circumstances in whicha creditor does not respond or unreasonably withholds consent.

Some members of the public benefitfrom statutory requirements for notification of planning applications, either as,for example, neighbours or owners, occupiers or lessees of the land to be developed.However, it is open to anyone to comment to the planning authority on a planningapplication.

It is for the planning authorityto give due consideration to representations and objections to planning applicationsbefore reaching a decision. The degree to which representations and objections maybe taken into account will depend on the extent to which they relate to materialplanning considerations.

The intention is that schemeswill be established locally on a voluntary basis by local authorities and landlordsworking in partnership, and work is in progress to provide suitable advice and guidance.Communities Scotland has commissioned a project to be completed by the springof next year, which will develop an appropriate set of core standards to which accreditationcould refer, together with good practice for private landlords. The project willalso produce a guide to good practice for the establishment and operation of localaccreditation schemes. Where a local authority does not establish a scheme, CommunitiesScotland will provide the necessary support for landlords to do so themselves.

Construction of new berthingfacilities to enable NorthLink's new vessels to berth at Scrabster, Stromness andHatston is a matter for the harbour authorities concerned, respectively, the ScrabsterHarbour Trust and the Orkney Islands Council.

Both harbour authorities hadplanned to have usable berths available by 1 October 2002when NorthLink's services started, recognising that further work would be necessaryto complete each project. Usable berths were available at Stromness and Hatstonas required, but the new Queen Elizabeth Pier at Scrabster did not become usableby NorthLink until 15 September 2003.

Final project costs are not yetavailable. However, we understand that in all three projects, the final costs willexceed the authorities’ pre-tender estimates.

No specific canal restorationprojects are identified as aspirations in the policy paper. However, an additional£2 million has been allocated to British Waterways in Scotland thisyear for important repair work to be undertaken on the Caledonian Canal. This funding is in addition to the £8.4 million grant that has alreadybeen allocated to British Waterways in Scotland by the Executive for 2003-04. Once this repair work hasbeen completed, there will be no safety backlog arrears on Scotland’s canalnetwork.

The Scottish Environment ProtectionAgency (SEPA) holds maps that indicate, approximately, those areas at an annualrisk of flooding from rivers of 1% (1 in 100 year risk). In addition, a report commissionedby the Executive Climate Change: Flooding Occurrences Review provided anestimate of the number of properties adjacent to the coast which lie below the fivemetre contour and, therefore, potentially at risk of coastal flooding. (The reportis available on the Executive's River and Coastal Flooding website at www.scotland.gov.uk/flooding).

The Executive's National FloodingFramework includes a commitment to work with SEPA to produce second generation,but still indicative, flood risk maps. These will cover both river and coastal floodrisk and take account of the latest available techniques and developments. Thiswork is currently being taken forward.

Local authorities have the necessarypowers to address flood risk to non-agricultural land and coastal erosion in theirareas and decisions on investment in defences are for them. The Executive has providedincreased resources, amounting to £40 million for years 2003-04 to 2005-06, forlocal authorities' capital programmes for flood prevention and coast protection.