No Budget for Bridge
The new year is starting with a major row between the Scottish Government and Westminster over the funding of a new Forth road bridge. Scottish ministers want the Treasury to bring forward money due to the Holyrood administration over a number of years to pay for the crossing. The bridge comes with a price tag of between £1.7billion and £2.3billion. However, Chancellor Alistair Darling on Sunday said the cash advance had been ruled out, prompting First Minister Alex Salmond to insist he would not “take no for an answer”.
The Scottish Government had hoped to spread the cost of the project, rather than take huge chunks out of the annual capital budget which would halt the development of other projects. The annual capital budget amounts to only £3.5billion each year.
Chancellor Darling is in agreement that the bridge project is vital but will not “bring forward spending 15 or 20 years out in budgets that haven’t been allocated. If you are contemplating large transport projects like this you do have to make choices. The Scottish Government is no different from any other organisation. If you want to spend a large sum of money on a particular project it does have consequences.”
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