Information Bulletin
12 May 2005
Scottish Executive Congratulated on Bressay Bridge Stance
Councillor Jim Irvine, Chair of the Infrastructure Committee, this week congratulated the Scottish Executive on the robust response to a misleading press statement suggesting that the Lerwick Port Authority (LPA) had won their judicial review and that a decision on the Notice of Intention to Develop (NID) for the Bressay Bridge could be deferred until 2007 or even later.
A statement from the Executive made it plain that fresh consideration of the NID was already in hand and this was not tied to the issue of roads consents. Councillor Irvine said “it seems that the LPA have succeeded with a technical point regarding the form of words used by the Executive when the decision to allow the bridge to proceed was notified. This means that the Executive will have to consider the matter afresh and they say this is already in hand. It also seems, from what the Executive are saying, that the other issues raised by the LPA in their case will now be dismissed”.
The Council will now focus on getting the roads consents in place and this is well advanced The Convener, Sandy Cluness, has this week written to the Minister for Transport asking him to ensure that these consents are dealt with as quickly as possible.
Councillor Irvine went on to express concern about the level of misinformation emanating from some quarters regarding the bridge project. He gave as examples recent public statements to the effect that the Council has only approved the bridge ‘in principle’ and that the matter had not been debated in the life of the current Council. Both statements are untrue. “The current Council has discussed the bridge project at least four times”, he said. “A specific decision granting authority to award a contract for the bridge construction, subject to certain conditions, was taken in public on 26 August 2003. Twenty Councillors were present at the meeting and while one Member declared an interest and sat throughout the debate without taking part, the decision to proceed was unanimous”. He said that, in conjunction with the Convener, he will be taking steps to ensure that all Council Members are brought up to date with the true position on the project and that any misinformation is corrected.
The Convener also commented on tunnelling following a dinner party hosted by the LPA at which they presented the idea of an underwater link. “As I have said all along, while we would be more than happy to engage with the LPA in a technical evaluation of their study – if ever they get around to sharing it with us – we are already confident that the bridge option is the best solution for a Bressay link. Elected Members know very well that any examination of tunnelling needs to be carried out by technically competent people and that is why I have been asking the LPA to put their study to the Bridge Project Team. The Team have access to experts of world standing in the field and they will be able to advise us once they have had the opportunity to examine in detail what the LPA have produced.”
The Council contrasted LPA’s stance with that of Lerwick Fish Traders who have recently engaged with the Council’s technical team to deal with some of the issues which led to them objecting to the bridge. “I am happy to say that Lerwick Fish Traders are now working with our technical team and I would encourage any of the few remaining objectors to do the same” the Convener said. “Many major projects take place worldwide in situations that present major technical challenges. I would not accept for one moment that the construction professionals engaged in Shetland cannot rise to the challenge of solving any remaining problems with this project and I firmly believe that if they work together it is not beyond the talents of the technical representatives of all parties to come up with solutions to any difficulties. If the LPA are serious about resolving their concerns they really must engage with our technical team. I am already on record saying that we are ready for an inquiry and the sooner it is held the better. But even at this late stage the door to our technical team remains open to any objector who wants to talk to us”.
Ends…..