Chamber and committees

A scoping meeting for the establishment of a forum was held in April 2010 after stakeholders highlighted in Cycling Scotland’s Best Value Review that there was a need for greater coordination in cycle tourism. Cycling Scotland then went onto establish the forum with a number of partners. The forum was previously chaired by Cycling Scotland, but since September 2012 has been chaired by Cyclists’ Touring Club Scotland.

A Memorandum of Understanding was developed and the four key areas of focus for the forum were set out as follows:

Improve communication and collaboration between stakeholders and the industry with a shared vision to develop and promote cycle tourism in Scotland;

Co-ordinate research activity to improve a shared understanding of the target markets;

Co-ordinate marketing efforts to maximise opportunities to raise awareness and grow the value of cycle tourism; and

Develop the cycling product and encourage best practice by making the most of Scotland’s cycling assets and establishing Scotland as a must visit, must return cycling destination.

Funding from Sustrans and Cycling Scotland was secured for a project manager to work two days a month to progress activity. Meetings of the forum have, on average, been held quarterly in locations in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Perth.

VisitScotland has been engaged to specifically improve the product content in tourism information and campaign activity. The forum has commented on and contributed to the VisitScotland Active Guide (a national publication). The forum is also working closely with VisitScotland to develop the cycle route content on visitscotland.com. The forum is engaging with local authorities to invite them to input the routes in their areas on to this site. This is happening in a phased approach and has so far included liaising with Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Scottish Borders, East Lothian, Fife, Dundee, Angus, Perthshire and Highland Councils. The intention is that route information in guides and online will also be used in specific campaign activity both nationally and regionally.

Initial research into the status of cycle tourism in Scotland was conducted by the forum, which identified gaps in knowledge. Further funding was secured from Sustrans for a piece of research into the economic value of cycle tourism by Transform Scotland. This report, which includes a number of recommendations, is due to be launched in April 2013. A workshop for the forum took place at the end of February 2013 to develop a Strategic Action Plan based on findings of the report. The Action Plan will be published shortly.

The forum is also working closely with the Scottish Tourism Alliance (STA) as cycling is part of the Nature, Heritage and Activities asset working group. The forum has shared the research findings with the STA and is liaising with them on forming priority actions for this sector.

Due to the protracted Practising Law Institute and legal challenges a road that should be relieving traffic from central Aberdeen now will unfortunately not be open until spring 2018. However, we ensured as much preparatory steps as possible were progressed during the legal challenges. As a result we were able to publish a Prior Information Notice on 19 October 2012 (only two days after the Supreme Court Judgment).

During the current period between resolution of the legal challenge and construction start we are procuring the contract to undertake the works. This period of time for procurement is typical of similar projects such as the M80, M73 and M74.

We are working together with the European Investment Bank to secure funding support through the successful bidders which provides value for money for both schemes.

The staggered timing of procurement took account of potential market capacity constraints in the bidding process and the ability of contractors to participate in the bidding process for more than one project. There are no overall capacity constraints in the market for delivering the construction of these projects.

Prioritisation was based on the previous development of the projects and the preparedness of their business cases for receiving approval.

Scotland’s Schools for the Future Programme is a joint £1.25 billion programme with Scotland’s local authorities which will see the delivery of 67 new or refurbished schools across all parts of Scotland. The Scottish Government is contributing £800 million towards the programme and the local authorities £450 million. The precise amount of funding made available to each project is dependent of the final project costs but is calculated on the basis of 50% of eligible costs for a primary/additional support needs school and 67% of eligible costs for a secondary school.

The Minister for Transport and Veterans approved the decision to deliver the Borders Railway using Network Rail’s Regulatory Asset Base.

Transport Scotland cancelled the original non-profit distributing procurement competition in September 2011 following the withdrawal of two of the three bidders.

Network Rail confirmed their willingness to take forward the delivery of the Borders Railway and that they would be able to deliver the project within budget, with significant on-going savings to the public purse.

There is no detrimental effect of the colleges moving into construction around the same time as overall capacity in the construction market to deliver these projects is not constrained. The projects differ in location and or size, and have attracted interest from different contractors and will ultimately be delivered by different contractors. The timing for delivery of the three colleges reflects the needs of the colleges and their students, as set out in their business cases.

Scotland’s Schools for the Future Programme, of which these 19 schools are a part, will see the delivery of 67 new or refurbished schools across all parts of Scotland by March 2018. So far six schools have been completed, nine schools are currently under construction of which five are expected to open in August 2013.

The delivery timescales of all revenue funded schools through the Schools for the Future Programme are published within the “Pipeline of Revenue Funded Projects” on the Scottish Futures Trust website which is regularly updated and can be obtained via the following link:

http://www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/publications/pipeline-of-revenue-funded-projects-npd-and-hub-october-2012/.

All revenue funded HUB school projects delivered through the Schools for the Future Programme are published within the “Pipeline of Revenue Funded Projects” on the Scottish Futures Trust website which is regularly updated and can be obtained via the following link:

http://www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/publications/pipeline-of-revenue-funded-projects-npd-and-hub-october-2012/.