Chamber and committees

The criteria for the design of lighting column layouts for trunk roads and motorways, including the M8, are set out in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges. There is currently a temporary reduction of lighting on the M8/A8 corridor during maintenance works. However, I am not aware of any permanent reduction in the number of lighting columns on the M8.

The Scottish Executive supports school transport by providing funding each year to local authorities to assist them to meet their statutory duty to make transport arrangements for certain pupils.

The Executive is committed to reviewing existing bridge tolls and entering into negotiations with a view to ending the discredited toll regime for the Skye Bridge. We have made initial contact with Skye Bridge Ltd and hope to start discussions shortly.

There are no plans to introduce tolls.

The Scottish Executive part-funds City of Edinburgh Council to undertake the development of transport projects. The detailed funding arrangements between the council and Transport Initiatives Edinburgh are a matter for those bodies.

The Scottish Executive has allocated around £15 million from the Transport Budget to the City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) for the promotion of the necessary private bills which will allow the construction of the proposed Edinburgh tram lines. Iain Gray, former Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning, also confirmed the future availability of £375 million provided the council produce a robust final business case. This was announced on 3 March and would secure the completion of at least the first tram line.Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (TIE) which is delivering the project on behalf of CEC expect the necessary powers for the first two lines to be obtained by 2005 and have indicated that trams could be running by 2009.

The following table shows the funding allocated from the Public Transport Fund by the Scottish Executive to each local authority and Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority towards the creation and expansion of park-and-ride sites for each year since 1999. In some cases, approximate figures have had to be given, as these elements form part of a wider programme of public transport improvements.

Local Authority	1999-2000(£ million)	2000-01(£ million)	2001-02(£ million)	2002-03(£ million)	2003-04(£ million)	2004-05(£ million)	2005-06(£ million)
Aberdeen City Council		2.500	2.500
Aberdeenshire Council	0.300	0.960	0.185
Angus Council				0.018	0.025	0.470
City of Edinburgh Council			1.7891	0.924	0.924
East Lothian Council		0.1702
Falkirk Council	0.230	0.120	1.600	1.000	1.000
Fife Council				3.8843
Glasgow City Council					0.107	2.608
Midlothian Council				1.000	1.000
North Lanarkshire Council		1.260			0.155	0.938	0.014
Perth and Kinross Council			0.975
SESTRAN4					2.269	4.384	4.386
South Lanarkshire Council				0.422	0.382	0.262	0.660
Stirling Council				0.002	1.315	0.625	0.776
Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority				0.935	0.200

Notes:1. Includes £1.327 million for 2001-02 and 2002-03, which cannot be broken down between years.2. Total figure for 2000-01 and 2001-02. No breakdown between years available.3. Total figure for 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2004-05. No breakdown between years available.4. The South-East Scotland Transport Partnership. The City of Edinburgh Council, Fife Council and West Lothian Council all have allocations within this award for park-and-ride schemes in their area.The Scottish Executive monitors the progress of such projects by scrutiny of the various management returns and invoices required from the recipient of grant.

The Scottish Executive recognises that women are currently under-represented in the public transport workforce. While the Executive does not have any specific schemes to encourage the employment of women in public transport, we would welcome appropriate initiatives on the part of operators to encourage women to seek employment in the sector.

The information requested covers a large number of road schemes, and takes the form of a summary table running to several pages. The Information is therefore given in Summary of trunk road construction proposals since 1999, a copy of which has been placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 27668).

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-250 today. All answers 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.