By Steve Bargeton, political editor

THE SCOTTISH National Party yesterday unanimously pledged that a future nationalist government would scrap the tolls on the Tay and Forth road bridges.

At the party’s spring conference in Dundee, delegates “deplored the duplicity” of Liberal Democrat and Labour MSPs who said they supported abolishing the Tay tolls but failed to support an SNP motion to do so in the Scottish Parliament last month.

A motion passed by conference attacked the decision by the Scottish Executive to keep the tolls on the Forth and the Tay bridges, which “discriminate against the people and businesses in Fife and Tayside.”

Opening a debate on the tolls Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Tricia Marwick reminded delegates of pronouncements of Liberal Democrat MSPs Iain Smith and Andrew Arbuckle claiming to be in favour of lifting the tolls on the Tay bridge.

“The SNP gave them the chance to put their money where their mouth is, and they bottled it,” she said.

Mrs Marwick described the actions of the two MSPs—plus another seven Labour and Liberal Democrat MSPs, all of whom claimed to be fighting to scrap the Tay tolls but instead voted for another review—as a “craven, shameful performance.”

She attacked plans by Dunfermline East MSP Helen Eadie to bring a private Member’s Bill before Holyrood, claiming that the Labour MSP “can’t even be trusted to press a button” to vote for the abolition of Tay tolls.

Fellow Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Bruce Crawford described the actions of Fife Liberal Democrat and Labour MSPs as “utterly shameful.”

Turning to claims by transport minister Tavish Scott that traffic congestion in Dundee city centre would get worse of the tolls were removed, Mr Crawford asked, “Has this man ever been to Dundee?

“He simply doesn’t know what he is talking about.”

Mr Crawford told conference that abolishing the tolls on the Tay and the Forth was a simple matter of “fairness and equity.”