Chamber and committees

The Scottish Governmentdoes not oppose the proposal to build a 50 metre swimming pool in Aberdeen. We recognise that a 50-metre pool in the north-eastof Scotland could make a significant contribution to thelocal community as well as providing training facilities for talented athletes.

The Forth EstuaryTransport Authority (FETA) and City of Edinburgh Council are the road authorities with responsibility for thetoll plaza and the A90 route to the south. FETA and the council are working togetherto discuss options and plan for redesigning the approach to the Forth Road Bridgefollowing the removal of tolls. Scottish Executive officials are assisting withthese discussions where appropriate.

This is a matter forthe Forth Estuary Transport Authority, the City of Edinburgh Council and the South East of Scotland Transport Partnership.We are aware, however, that a bus priority project is currently under consideration.

No. I also refer the member to the answer to question S3W-795on 19 June 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Scottish Executivesupports local authorities’ net revenue expenditure on roads maintenance throughthe core local government finance settlement. Spending Review 2004 addeda further £60 million in both 2006-07 and 2007-08 to the Roads and Transport GrantAided Expenditure (GAE) allocations, the majority of which was added to the roadsmaintenance GAEs. Total GAE forroads maintenance will amount to £320 million by 2007-08 and this represents anincrease of 23% on the 2004-05 allocation to local authorities. Each council isresponsible for the maintenance and improvement of local roads in its area and itis entirely a matter for councils to decide what priority is given to local roadsand to allocate the resources available to them accordingly.

The Executive is currentlyconsidering a bid by COSLA for increased funding on local road maintenance in thecontext of Spending Review 2007.

Scottishministers provide local authorities with revenue allocations for expenditure ona number of services, including roads and transport. Each council is responsiblefor the maintenance and improvement of local roads in its area. It is entirely amatter for councils to decide what priority is given to local roads and to allocateresources accordingly.

The estimate for localroads is a matter for the local authorities. The Scottish Executive does not requirecouncils to provide the information requested and therefore has no centrally heldestimate. The Scottish Executive supports local authorities’ net revenue expenditureon roads maintenance through the core local government finance settlement. SpendingReview 2004 added a further £60 million in both 2006-07 and 2007-08 to the Roadsand Transport Grant Aided Expenditure (GAE) allocations, the majority of which wasadded to the roads maintenance GAEs. Total GAE for roads maintenance will amount to £320 million by 2007-08 andthis represents an increase of 23% on the 2004-05 allocation to local authorities.Each council is responsible for the maintenance and improvement of local roads inits area and it is entirely a matter for councils to decide what priority is givento local roads and to allocate the resources available to them accordingly.

Transport Scotland have budgeted £60.4 million for structural road and bridgemaintenance and £51.9 million for routine maintenance and winter service on thetrunk road network for 2007-08.

In the transport debateon 27 June 2007, we informed the Parliament about how we wouldtake forward and manage our investment programme for transport.

We confirmed our commitmentto the Waverley Railway (Borders) project, advising however that the funding packageproposed by the Waverley railway partnership would not be sufficient to deliverthe project and that the opening in December 2011 was not achievable. We confirmedfunding support of £115 million in 2002 prices, subject to the project meeting thethree remaining funding conditions i.e. (1) assumptions underlining the businesscase must hold, (2) a clear and comprehensive risk management strategy must be developedand delivered and (3) the railway must be integrated with local bus services.

On the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardineproject we advised that due to concerns that the project was running late and overbudget we would introduce a simpler project structure to strengthen governance whichwould take the project through to opening in spring 2008 at a cost of £80 millionto £85 million.

In respect of theGlasgow Airport Rail Link project Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) andNetwork Rail (NR) are working together to combine the Glasgow Airport Rail Link(GARL) with NR’s Paisley Corridor Renewal (PCR) project.

Transport Scotland, SPT and NR will, over the Parliament’s summer recess,work to deliver the detailed schedule, cost and risk model for the integrated projectsand we expect to be in a position to provide the Parliament with an update in theearly autumn.

We will press NetworkRail for the delivery of the full Airdrie to Bathgate scheme by December 2010 andwe expect them to contain costs within the range of £300 million to £375 millionin out turn prices.

Similarly we expectNetwork Rail to deliver the core of the current Waverley station works on schedule and within budget by the end of 2007. NetworkRail continues to work with the Balmoral hotel to reach agreement on the proposedimprovements to the Waverley steps.

The Larkhall to Milngavieproject was delivered on schedule in December 2005. The original budget for theproject was £34.5 million and the current estimated final cost is £35.24 million,which is subject to discussions between Transport Scotland and SPT. You will be pleased to note that the patronage figures for theservice as of March 2007 show an increase of some 53% against the original businesscase forecasts.

Audit Scotland publishedMaintaining Scotland’s roads on 3 November 2004, stating that estimated backlogon local roads amounts to £1.5 billion. This figure has not been verified by ScottishExecutive, but we are investigating the need for further road maintenance funding,in advance of the spending review 2007. Audit Scotland report Scottish Executive; an overview of the performance of transportin Scotland published in 2006 restated the £1.5 billionfigure Audit Scotland believe is needed to clear the backlog ofroad maintenance.

As the previous administrationacknowledged, and as called for by many stakeholders, the current draft of the NationalStrategy and Action Plan on Race Equality requires further work. We therefore intendto further develop the strategy and action plan and will issue it for consultation in the autumn.