Abolition of Bridge Tolls (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 3:08 pm on 15 November 2007.

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Photo of Patrick Harvie Patrick Harvie Green 3:08, 15 November 2007

In opening for the committee, I first give my thanks and those of the committee to the committee's clerks and the Parliament's other officials who make our meetings and work possible. Thanking those people is traditional, but it is richly deserved. I also thank the other members of the committee and everybody who gave evidence at committee meetings or in writing. We took oral evidence from a range of organisations—from environmental and sustainable transport non-governmental organisations to local authorities, trade unions, business interests and others. We also received many pieces of written evidence. I am grateful to everyone who took part in the process.

It is worth restating for the record that we were disappointed and a little concerned that Transport Scotland initially declined to appear before the committee when it was invited to do so. We welcomed the clarification from the minister and Transport Scotland that that will not happen again, but I hope that no other parliamentary committee will seek evidence from a key part of Government on an issue that it is scrutinising and then find itself looking at a decline letter.

I thank the minister for his written response to the committee's report. I will talk about some of the specifics of that in a few moments.

As the minister makes clear, the bill is simple and short: it deals with the abolition of bridge tolls. However, the committee recognised early on that there are wider implications, and we felt that it was entirely right for us to address those in our scrutiny. I was, therefore, surprised by the references to a tight interpretation of what the bill is about in the minister's response. It is entirely right that we should address the bill's wider implications.