17 November 2010
FRA news release: New Forth bridge will starve rest of Scotland of investment
New road bridge will mean capital spending on education, health and local government will suffer disproportionate cuts
The ForthRight Alliance, a coalition of groups opposed to the building of a Second Forth Road Bridge, has today (Wednesday 17th) criticised the Scottish Government's decision to continue with an unaffordable, unsustainable and unpopular new road bridge despite the massive spending cuts that the rest of Scottish society will be forced to bear.
Reacting to today's confirmation in the Budget Statement by Finance Secretary John Swinney that the construction of a so-called "replacement" Forth road bridge was still "on track", Lawrence Marshall, chair of the ForthRight Alliance and former convener of the Forth Estuary Transport Authority (between 2005 and 2007), said:
"John Swinney has today confirmed that, in these tough economic times, the Scottish Government's priorities are not those of the Scottish people. By continuing to insist on spending over £2 billion on an unnecessary additional bridge at Queensferry rather than concentrating on fixing the existing crossing, he has condemned communities across the length and breadth of the land to sub-standard health, education and local government facilities for the lifetime of the next Scottish Parliament - and some years beyond. The cost of a new bridge represents, for example, 50 new secondary schools of 1400 pupils each.
"Even with an announced reduced expenditure of £200 million on the new bridge in the forthcoming financial year, this will still represent 123% of all education capital spending in Scotland. And with the cost of the bridge staying the same - or maybe even going up - expenditure in future years will have to rise or the financial pain be spread over an even longer number of years to pay for this project.
"As was made clear in a YouGov poll in November of last year, 57% of Scots favour fixing the existing bridge - presumably because they'd rather see money being spent on much-wanted new schools and hospitals than on a bridge which, in the light of encouraging results from cable drying on the existing crossing, is very likely not to be needed." [2]
ENDS
Notes to Editors
[1] The ForthRight Alliance is a coalition of groups opposed to the construction of a Second Forth Road Bridge. The Alliance believes that a new road bridge is both unwelcome and unnecessary, as a series of reports have indicated that the problems with the Forth Road Bridge can be addressed without building a second bridge. See <http://www.forthrightalliance.org/> for further details.
[2] A YouGov poll in November 2009 found that 57% were in favour of fixing the existing Forth Road Bridge. See <http://www.patrickharviemsp.com/2009/11/news-release-yougov-poll-shows-57-oppose-extra-forth-road-bridge/> for details.
[3] Evidence from official reports suggests that even if drying - which has been successfully installed on sixteen similar suspension bridges worldwide - fails to arrest corrosion then cable augmentation or replacement can be carried out over 7-8 years without weekday closure of the bridge. The cost range for this is £91-122 million [Reference: Forth Estuary Transport Authority (2008): Feasibility Study for the Replacement or Augmentation of the Main Cables - Update and Interim Stage 2 Report. Report to FETA, 22/02/08: Table 1, Section 3.3], compared with an initial estimate of £3,200 - 4,200 million for a new bridge and now £1,720 - 2,340 million for a bridge of "narrower design".
END OF NEWS RELEASE