Demands for extra funds as predicted congestion takes a toll

30 August 2007
 
The Scottish Executive ‘has to provide appropriate funding’ to combat predicted hikes in congestion, once tolls are removed from the Tay and Forth road bridges.

The warning, from the Society of Chief Officers for Transportation in Scotland, comes in advance of ministerial decisions on regional transportation strategies, expected in September.

SCOTS chair, Ken Laing, said it was ‘vital’ that the two relevant regional transportation plans attracted sufficient funding for demand-management measures, given estimates that removing the tolls would increase traffic flows by 15-20% by 2015.

The South East of Scotland Transport Partnership claims that from 2008 to 2010, an extra £201M will be needed over and above current local authority spending on transport for measures such as regional park-and-ride services.

The Tayside and Central Scotland Transport Partnership, meanwhile, wants additional funding for park-and-ride networks in Dundee and Perth – both in areas where traffic will be encouraged by the abolition of tolling.

The executive has only provided £35M a year in total for the RTPs in 2006/07 and 2007/08. A spokesman said it was unable to give specific funding commitments for demand management at this stage. Ministers had, however, pledged that the toll income – currently £15M for the Forth, £3.6M for the Tay – would be replaced by the executive to cover the bridges’ maintenance. Details of the funding package would be made available in September.

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