By Steve Bargeton, political editor

LABOUR AND the Liberal Democrats were yesterday accused of a “crude attempt” to kick the issue of tolls on the Tay bridge into the political long grass until after the Holyrood elections in May 2007.

In a heated debate on an SNP motion to scrap the tolls on the bridge, Transport Minister Tavish Scott announced another review of the tolls, less than a month after the last bridges review which lifted the charges on the Erskine bridge and kept them on the Tay and Forth.

Opening the debate, Dundee East SNP MSP Shona Robison (pictured) said what was needed was not another review but a decision.

“A promise of jam tomorrow after the election year is not on,” she said. “That is exactly the sort of political shenanigans that gives politics in this country a bad name.”

She rejected claims axing the charges would lead to an increase in congestion as “patently absurd.”

“Everyone knows that the congestion at peak time is caused by cars tailed back from the toll booths,” she said.

“Removing the tolls would therefore allow a free flow of traffic.”

Ms Robison said that this was what happened on Tuesday, when strike action meant tolls were not collected.

Calling on the other MSPs who had called for the Tay tolls to be scrapped to “put their votes where their mouths are” she said, “A vote for this motion today will force the Executive to bring forward proposals to remove the tolls at the earliest opportunity.

“It only took the Executive one month to do it for the Erskine bridge, so where there is a will there is a way.”

Putting the case for another review, Mr Scott said he accepted there was “an economic impact of a tolling regime.”

“It is appropriate to fully and comprehensively interrogate that impact,” he said.

“We will take forward a full economic analysis of the impact tolls and congestion have on local people, business and the wider Scottish economy.”

But he reminded MSPs of the £13 million debt outstanding on the Tay bridge.

“If a bridge hasn’t been paid for, that is justification to retain tolls, unless there are significant factors,” he said.

Turning to traffic levels he said, “Traffic modelling indicates that removing the tolls increases traffic on the bridge, and thus into Dundee.”

That analysis, he added, predicted that by 2011 there would be an extra 10,000 cars and lorries going over the bridge every day if tolls were dropped.

But significantly he did not repeat his claim made in Parliament on March 1 that lifting the tolls on the Tay would lead to more “congestion.”

Putting the Scottish Tory amendment, deputy leader Murdo Fraser blasted the review as “a political fix.”

“The fact is that the minister’s position is utterly inconsistent and is no more than a political fix to satisfy both Liberal Democrat and Labour camps, leaving the east of Scotland out in the cold,” he said.

“There is no need for another review and if there is, it’s only because the minister hasn’t been doing his job properly.

“It’s no more than a shoddy attempt at the 11th hour to save the minister’s face and kick the issue into the long grass until after the 2007 elections.”

Scottish Green MSP Shiona Baird said the party supported a revision of bridge tolls.

“We believe that the current toll regimes are unfair, which is why we propose that the way forward is through a smarter, fairer way of charging for bridge use,” she said.

“In addition to the existing exemptions, we advocate the abolition of tolls for public transport and also variable rates on the basis of level of occupancy of vehicles, the type of vehicles and the time of day.”

Liberal Democrat Andrew Arbuckle said he had campaigned for years for the abolition of tolls on the Tay bridge but would not be backing the SNP motion.

He said it left questions unanswered over the debt attached to the bridge as well as who would deal with care and maintenance.

Mr Arbuckle also said he had concerns about the future of the staff who work on the booths.

“My road forward is planned and business-like, but the SNP’s is shallow,” he said.

“This is impulse spending where the ticket has not even been looked at.

“I want to see traffic flowing freely on the bridge and the people using it to know that the bridge is safe.”

Dundee West Labour MSP Kate Maclean told Parliament public opinion was “massively” in favour of abolishing the tolls.

She said, “People don’t have to pay to get over the Kincardine bridge or the Kingston bridge or the Skye bridge or the Friarton bridge—why should they have to pay to get over the Tay bridge?”

North East Fife Liberal Democrat MSP Iain Smith said he supported scrapping tolls on the Tay but branded the SNP “cheap political opportunists.”

“We have a motion today that says get rid of the tolls, but doesn’t say who will meet the cost of the current £13 million debt on the bridge or the £12 million essential repairs programme. This is little more than a publicity-seeking stunt,” he said. “If the SNP motion is passed today, then this burden will fall on the hard-pressed local council tax-payers in Fife and Tayside.

“For my constituents, does this mean getting rid of tolls by increasing their council tax? Or will it mean cutting the money Fife can spend on other roads or on new schools such as the much-needed secondary school in north Fife?”

He added, “I would be more convinced by the SNP’s case this morning if they had ever previously supported the abolition of tolls. The reality is they have not. The only consistent SNP transport policy is jumping on to the nearest bandwagon.”

Summing up for the SNP, Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Tricia Marwick reminded the transport minister that less than a month ago when asked if the Tay tolls situation could be kept under review, he replied, “All I can say is that we have had a lengthy process and the position is that the review is concluded.”

She described the Executive amendment as a “cynical fudge.”

Last night Labour MSP Marlyn Glen said, “The SNP’s motion fell well short of the overall objective of what the local campaign in our part of the east of Scotland is quite rightly calling for—the removal of tolls from both the Tay road bridge and from the Forth road bridge.

“I supported the Executive’s amendment as the best possible method of advancing a firm, realistic case for the ending of the tolls across both the Tay and the Forth in the least time.”