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the Johnstone's View Index
Johnstone's View 23rd
November 2007
Since the election in May and the change of
government it brought, you could be forgiven for thinking
that the sense of urgency has gone out of the Scottish
Parliament. Let me tell you that in my experience, that
couldn't be further from the truth. My day to day
responsibilities in the Scottish Parliament cover transport,
infrastructure and climate change, working in close
partnership with my colleague Derek Brownlee who is
responsible for finance and enterprise - which made last
week one of the busiest to date.
The transport committee, which meets on
Tuesdays, has been one of the hardest working committees
this session and hasn't missed a weekly meeting yet,
devoting most of its time so far to the first piece of
legislation promoted by the new government, the Abolition of
Bridge Tolls (Scotland) Bill. With a 200 page committee
report published the week before, last weeks meeting started
the new and even more rigorous process of scrutinising the
budget.
It’s the job of committees to look closely
at the governments spending proposals in their area of
responsibility and report to the finance committee on a
strict deadline. The report of the finance committee will be
debated in parliament before Christmas, with the final
stages of the Budget Bill being completed in January and
February next year. I expect long meetings every Tuesday
till this process is complete.
Wednesday’s business was a statement by
finance minister John Swinney, on the strategic spending
review followed by a debate on the contents of his
statement. This is essentially the start of the budget
process and my job was to close the debate for the
Conservatives.
Needless to say Mr Swinneys initial
proposals fell well short of most members expectations as he
failed to deliver on police numbers, funding for drug and
alcohol rehabilitation and provision for affordable housing
as well as dragging his feet on reducing the tax burden on
small businesses and promoting energy efficiency.
Proposals for local government funding also
leave more questions to be answered with a promise of a
council tax freeze but demands for increased efficiency
savings and limited extra funding. With, thanks to the
previous government, Aberdeenshire already among the least
adequately funded councils in Scotland, there is little left
to cut but staff. I hope this can be avoided.
Closing the debate for the Conservatives I
made it quite clear that, "To avoid confusion, I make it
clear that neither I nor my Conservative colleagues will
vote for the budget proposals that have been set out today,"
but in closing I also stated that the government had, "not
brought forward proposals that will find support in
parliament, but that they still have time to do so.”
On Thursday, the stage one report on the
Abolition of Bridge Tolls (Scotland) Bill was laid before
parliament for debate on a motion that the general
principals be approved. I opened the debate for the
Conservatives supporting the motion unreservedly.
The idea that tolls should be used to fund
infrastructure projects is a sound one. We may yet have to
return to it in the future, but the tolls on the Forth and
Tay bridges had done their job long ago. With the tolls on
the Skye and Erskine bridges removed by the previous
government, their continuation, exclusively for people who
wished to travel to, or through Fife, was simply an
injustice.
Worse still, all those who came to the
committee to argue for their retention did so because they
believed they might cut congestion and pollution in
Edinburgh. Thanks to section 3 of the Transport (Scotland)
Act 2001, which I voted against incidentally, the city of
Edinburgh already has such powers if it had the courage to
use them. Needless to say it does not. The Conservatives
will move an amendment at stage 2 to prevent this act being
used to reimpose tolls on the Forth or Tay Bridges in the
future.
While the City of Edinburgh Council seem
content to see ‘their’ bridge as ‘their’ concern, its impact
on the Scottish economy stretches well beyond Fife and the
Lothians. Businesses and individuals right into the North
East are dependent on it being there. While there may be an
element of ‘tokenism’ in this legislation, it is the start
of a process, which will see our roads infrastructure, once
again, at the top of the government priority list.
I hope this change in attitude will now lead
on to an early completion of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral
Route and a commitment to a replacement Forth crossing if
the existing bridge has to be closed to HGV’s in seven years
time.
Any budget I support in years to come will
demonstrate these shared priorities.
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