Chamber and committees

Scottish Natural Heritage hasrecorded the estimated deer population and cull numbers since its inception as follows:

Year	Deer Count	Total Deer Culled
1991	1,649	434
1992	1,438	308
1993	1,262	113
1994	1,185	172
1995	Abandoned due to weather	196
1996	1,483	280
1997	1,408	245
1998	1,527	255
1999	1,432	256
2000	1,341	249
2001	1,103	444
2002	990	406
2003	No count done	190
2004	1,269	237
2005	1,234	445
2006	1,160	141

 

Forestry Commission Scotlandwill approve grant for planting schemes which contain no provision for fencingwhether submitted by Scottish Natural Heritage or by other applicants if theyare satisfied that there is no significant risk of damage from deer or othergrazing animals. If such planting schemes are not successful, the applicantwould be asked to carry out remedial work to ensure that the scheme will becomeestablished.

The Scottish Executive has alwaystaken the view that there should be a charge on the newStirling-Alloa-Kincardine railway and that the charge should be such as to allowthe benefits of the new railway to be shared between the investor and operatorsusing the new railway. This view has been discussed with many bodies since 2001including the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR), the Strategic Rail Authority, ClackmannanshireCouncil, Scottish Power, Forth Ports, Clydeport and other industry bodies. Mostrecently we wrote to the ORR in June 2006 asking them to set an appropriate trackaccess charge for the railway.

Transport Scotland plansto ask the Office of Rail Regulation to set an appropriate access charge for allnew additions to the rail network This is normal with any addition to infrastructurecontrolled by Network Rail. Transport Scotland will fund any necessary increasein the First ScotRail franchise subsidy to cover these charges.

The process is initiated formallyby the Office of Rail Regulation through the issue of the Access Charges ReviewNotice. This is expected shortly, and it is likely that this will require the submissionof the high-level output statement, together with the statement of funds availablein July 2007.

Transport Scotland is partof the Scottish Executive, directly accountable to Scottish ministers. Consequently,no such direction or guidance has been given.

Access charges will be paid byFirst ScotRail to Network Rail for use of the railway between Stirling and Alloa.This was anticipated in the ScotRail Franchise contract, in accordance with normalindustry practice.

The level of charges will bedetermined between Network Rail and passenger operators in terms of the track accessagreements overseen by the Office of the Rail Regulator. As such, details will notbe placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.

The Office of Rail Regulation(ORR) is responsible for setting an appropriate track access charge regime for newrailways. The Scottish Executive does not consider that the parliamentary considerationof the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine Railway and Linked Improvements Bill will preventthe ORR from discharging this responsibility.

I expect the railway to open in the summer 2007; as indicated in mystatement of March 2006.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-30775 on 12 February 2007. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.