By Jim Hislop and Bryan Kay

THE TREASURER of the Tay Road Bridge Joint Board, David Dorward, has welcomed an announcement from the Scottish transport minister that the Executive may step in to help avoid an increase in tolls.

Tavish Scott, newly appointed to the ministerial role, said during a visit to Dundee yesterday that a long awaited review of the charges on tolled bridges in Scotland was looking at the possibility of an Executive intervention to seek an extension to the 2016 date by which all capital borrowing must be repaid.

Mr Dorward said, “We are still awaiting the outcome of stage two of the review, but I welcome the fact that one of the things we asked the Executive to consider—intervention—is being looked at.

“We told them we felt it was an anomaly in the public sector to have an end date when borrowing must be repaid imposed.

“I haven’t heard of any other instance where an end date has been put on. However, the board are presently committed to the bridge bearing contract and in planning borrowing we have to work on the assumption that it will still have to be paid by 2016 and so we have factored it into the projection.”

The minister yesterday confirmed that the affordability of such intervention to extend the end date was being scrutinised in the review.

The bridge is part of the A92 linking the Forth and Tay bridges—a trunk road for which the Executive is directly responsible.

Having already suggested it would be difficult to remove tolls altogether on the two bridges, the minister says he is keeping an open mind while he awaits the review findings.

Asked whether the Executive might shoulder the shortfall and actually pay for it, Mr Scott again referred to the review.

“All I can say is that we will look closely at the review but also the demands of the city in relation to its transport links,” he added.

Joint board chairman John Letford has already gone on the record as saying he did not think the board would want any increase to be more than 20p, taking the toll up to £1—a level that Mr Dorward has said would ensure funding of the repair work.

The board is presently looking at an £8 million-plus shortfall in the cost of essential repairs.

The overall cost of the repair work is estimated to be £19 million.

The bridge toll review is expected sometime in the autumn.