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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Details of how much each authorityhas received in revenue grant can be found in the local government finance circular1/2003 (Bib. number 26534) which is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre.

Revenue per capita funding allocatedto date for 2003-04 is as follows:

	£
Highland NHS Board	1,115
Shetland NHS Board	1,257
Orkney NHS Board	1,186
Western Isles NHS Board	1,651
Grampian NHS Board	955
Argyll and Clyde NHS Board	1,070

 

Subsidies for general roll-on/roll-offor load-on/load-off freight services serving the Orkney and Shetland Isles werewithdrawn in 1995. However, Tariff Rebate Subsidy (TRS) is paid to eligible shippingoperators wholly or mainly engaged in providing bulk freight services to the Highlands andIslands in accordance with an undertaking, a draft of which has been laid before,and approved by, Parliament. Currently there is one small shipping company in receiptof TRS for bulk freight to Shetland.