By Stefan Morkis

A NORTH Fife councillor has renewed calls for Scottish Executive cash to help meet the cost of repairs to the Tay Road Bridge.

Andrew Arbuckle, councillor for Newburgh and Tay Coast, said regular users of the bridge should not foot the bill for repairs to what is part of the national road network.

Other councillors in the Tay bridgehead area have voiced concerns at the spiralling cost of repairing the bridge after it emerged last month that £19.2 million will be required for essential repairs although the original bill was expected to be £12 million.

Bridge tolls may have to rise to compensate for the £8 million funding shortfall.

If work between the box girders and the tops of columns is not completed, it would mean so much damage would be caused to the bridge that it would eventually have to close. Work is set to start in the summer and will take more than two years to complete.

Yesterday Mr Arbuckle said, “The decision by the Executive to provide an extra £24 million to help activate the urgent upgrade of the A8000 south of the Forth Road Bridge is to be applauded but this leaves users of the Tay Road Bridge feeling even more neglected.

“Bearing in mind the recent total removal of tolls from the Skye Bridge and the future possibility of removing tolls on the Erskine Bridge, it seems as if bridge users in Dundee and north Fife are particularly disadvantaged. Not only will they face increased toll charges but also up to three years of a single carriageway on the southern carriageway of the bridge.

“The repair work cannot be postponed as they have an obligation to carry out work to ensure the safety of the bridge.

“As far as I am concerned, the board will have to go back to the Executive and ask for increased support.

“Why should motorists who use the Tay Road Bridge have to fork out extra cash for what is part of the national road network?”

Mr Arbuckle added that tolls collected on the bridge had already paid for its construction many times over.

“Tay Road Bridge users have already handed over more than £40 million in tolls since the bridge was opened,” he said.

“With this latest imposition of added costs, it looks likely that with interest rates on borrowing, another £60 to £70 million will be paid before all debt is cancelled.

“This provides an incredible sum of money taken out of the economy with a bridge that originally cost less than £5 million to build.”

Newport and Wormit councillor Tim Brett called for an independent survey of the bridge to be carried out to ensure that there are no other structural defects.

“The communities of north east Fife are totally reliant on the bridge for access to work, shopping and leisure facilities,” he said.

“There is no alternative to the crossing apart from a long detour via Perth.

“What will cause real concern for local residents is the major increase in the cost of the proposed repair work from £12 million to £19.2 million. This is a huge 60% increase and in any other project there would be calls for a public inquiry.

“The worry here is whether even now we can be sure this is the correct figure or will it go up again when the work begins and other ‘technical problems’ are discovered? I would call on the bridge board to get an independent report on these costings to satisfy themselves that this is not the case.”

Mr Brett added that if tolls do rise, then there should be a discount scheme available for regular users.

“It is also clear that, unless significant additional funding can be prized from the Scottish Executive, bridge tolls will have to go up.

“If that is the case then I would hope that there would be a discount for regular users in recognition that it is the local users who have to put up with all the problems and repairs on the bridge.

“This would bring the Tay Bridge into line with all the other bridges in the UK.

“It is vital that when government ministers are looking at this issue that users of the Tay Road Bridge are treated equitably with others across Scotland.

“At the present time that does not appear to be the case,” he added.

Tayport and Motray councillor Maggie Taylor said she was also concerned that there may be other parts of the bridge in need of repair that have not yet been discovered.

She said, “Historic records show that then the bridge was constructed in 1966 the bearings were expected to have a serviceable life of more than 100 years.

“Last week I and other members of the Tay Bridge Board were informed that there had been no inspection programme in place from 1966 to 2001—35 years of assuming that the bearings would be okay.

“This caused me great concern as to whether other parts of the bridge have had the same amount of neglect.”