Chamber and committees

There is already legal protection for common good assets held in perpetuity. The question of whether the existing legislation is sufficient is being considered by my officials in consultation with local government.

Threshold values, established for various pollutants under the terms of the Groundwater Directive, are used in assessing the chemical status of a groundwater body. The exceedance of a threshold value is used as a trigger for investigations of whether the pressures on the groundwater body concerned would compromise the quality of drinking water sources, the quality of surface water into which the groundwater flows, or the quality of any wetlands connected to the groundwater. The standards applied for the regulation of pollution or the remediation of contaminated land are therefore specific to the groundwater body concerned.

The Scottish Government will be a member of the recently established UK National Brownfield Forum, which is being sponsored by the Department of Communities and Local Government and Defra. We will await further developments with the UK National Brownfield Forum before considering whether there is any requirement for the establishment of a distinct brownfield forum for Scotland.

In addition to the statutory guidance which was last revised in 2006, the Scottish Government is working with DEFRA, the other devolved administrations, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Environment Agency to review the current technical guidance on risk assessment, known as the Contaminated Land Exposure Assessment (CLEA) framework, used in the determination of contaminated land. This guidance, first issued in 2002, provides a methodology to help assess whether there is a significant risk to human health from exposure to a particular contaminant on a given site.

An assessment of the emissions from traffic predicted to use the crossing will be undertaken as part of the environmental impact assessment. The findings will be published in an environmental statement in 2009.

The new traffic management arrangements at the Forth Road Bridge came into effect on 26 May 2008, and major works are continuing at the Tay Road Bridge which restrict traffic flows southbound. It is therefore too early to make any realistic assessment of the traffic and other impacts of the abolition of tolls. We will work with the bridge boards and neighbouring local authorities to monitor the situation and to see how any impacts arising directly from the abolition of tolls might be addressed.

The principal greenhouse gas emitted by traffic using trunk roads and motorways is carbon dioxide. An assessment of the emissions of carbon dioxide from traffic predicted to use new trunk road projects is usually undertaken as part of the environmental impact assessment of the road proposals. These assessments are based on traffic modelling for the schemes which predict changes in traffic flows, and report emissions as a change in the quantity of carbon dioxide compared with the predicted conditions without the new or improved road in place. The findings of these assessments are presented in the environmental statement (ES) for each project which is a public document.

Information on carbon dioxide emissions is not available for all projects in the motorway and trunk road programme. A number of smaller road improvement schemes do not significantly change traffic flows and have a negligible effect on emissions. Also, several schemes are still in preparation and have not yet reached the ES stage. A summary of information for the projects in the programme on which information is available from the relevant ES is presented in the following table.

Route	Project Name	Estimated Carbon Dioxide Emissions* (t.p.a.)	Assessment Year
A876	Upper Forth Crossing at Kincardine	7,524	2021
A75	Overtaking Opportunities	32	2021
A830	Arisaig to Loch nan Uamh	Reduction of 70	2021
A9	Ballinluig Junction	181	2022
M74	M74 Completion	134,800	2020
A7	Auchenrivock	130	2006
A77	Park End to Bennane	3	2008
A76	Glenairlie	105	2007
M74	Raith Interchange	10,000	2020
M80	Stepps to Haggs	40,000	2025
A9	Crubenmore Extension	251	2022
A96	Fochabers to Mosstodloch	171	2020
M8	Baillieston to Newhouse	30,000	2020
M8	Associated Network Improvements	1,600	2010
A75	Dunragit Bypass	3,670	2022
A9	Kincraig to Dalraddy	45	2023
A90	Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route	36,700	2025
A77	Symington and Bogend Toll	121	2024
A90	Balmedie to Tipperty	2,137	2010

Note: *Estimates are predicted increases (unless shown) in carbon dioxide emissions with the project compared to without the project, in a given future assessment year. Units: tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum.

Environmental Statements for a number of projects in the trunk road and motorway programme can be accessed from the projects pages of Transport Scotland’s website:

http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/projects.

Road traffic level data for 2007 are produced by the Department for Transport and will not be available until August 2008. Greenhouse gas emission level data from the National Atmospheric Emission Inventory for 2006 and 2007, will not be available until autumn 2008 and autumn 2009 respectively.

The latest period for which data is available for both the change in Scottish road traffic levels and the change in Scottish greenhouse gas emission levels is 2004 to 2005. Between 2004 and 2005, road traffic levels increased by 13 million kms (0.03%) and road transport greenhouse gas emissions grew by 70KtCO_2e (0.7%).

Scotland’s National Transport Strategy (NTS) commits us to publishing the carbon balance sheet for transport as part of its first review which will commence in 2010-11. The balance sheet is currently being developed, with a view to having a working draft prior to the NTS review.

The environmental effects of enhancements at Edinburgh and Glasgow Airports are addressed in the environmental report which accompanied the discussion draft of the national planning framework.