ANY FUTURE Forth crossing should be part of the trunk road system and maintained by central government from road-related taxes, the Federation of Small Businesses said yesterday.

David Chalmers, who chairs the Fife branch, said, “We’ve heard a lot about what a new tunnel or bridge would cost, yet the Government rakes in £46 billion from motorists a year, equivalent to £900 million a week.

“On that basis, it would take from Monday to Saturday to raise the money to build a bridge and slightly longer for a tunnel, that’s how quickly it could be paid for.

“And if you spread the costs over the 8-10 years it would take to build a new crossing, it becomes a very small figure—around £2 million a week.

“Our federation has been saying for a long time that the new crossing should be funded by Westminster and now we’re showing how quickly it could be financed. Some people will say that that money would have to be diverted from other projects, but my answer to that is it could easily be found through efficiency savings—for instance the NHS is wasting billions of pounds a year through mismanagement.”

Meanwhile, the National Alliance Against Tolls (NAAT) has slammed the Executive for indicating it is in support of road charging.

Said a spokesman, “Having narrowly fought off SNP and Tory demands two weeks ago that the last two bridge tolls be removed, the Executive are now insisting that they will stick with Westminster in pushing a toll tax on most roads.

“This is monumental folly. Have the Executive swallowed the spin coming from their colleagues down south?

“Did Douglas Alexander or his predecessor, Alistair Darling, not whisper in their ears that the cost of implementing this could be £62 billion with another £5 billion a year running costs on top of that? (The figures calculated by Deloitte, consultants commissioned by Department for Transport in 2004 to work out the cost.)

“Those who want road tolls have accused us and other campaigners of spreading myths. The reality is that those, north and south of the border, who are pushing for more tolls are desperately trying to fool people into accepting this ludicrous and wasteful tax.

“They are so desperate that when the PM gave his reply to the Peter Roberts petition, groups that have mainly campaigned for road tolls it was presented as ‘Independent views on road pricing— for and against’.

“Neither of the two groups that have been most fiercely against road tolls, ourselves and the Association of British Drivers, are mentioned.”

Concluded the spokesman, “The Executive seems intent on hurling themselves on to the rocks. The voters at the coming election should make it clear that they are not going to be fooled into joining them.”

* The SNP’s Parliamentary candidate for Dunfermline West, Len Woods, has urged the Scottish Executive to forge ahead with its plans for a new Forth crossing.

Len Woods told constitu- ency colleagues this week while he was pleased the project had been given the go ahead he was concerned about its execution.

The Nationalists have already given their backing to a tunnel as the quickest and cheapest solution to the problems posed by the ageing Forth Road Bridge.

Corrosion to cables and general wear and tear on the structure mean the bridge may close to heavy goods vehicles by 2013.

Mr Woods said, “I’d like to take this opportunity to remind Scottish Executive ministers that the people will simply not stand for any prevarication.

“At the recent packed meeting convened by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) people from both sides of the Forth gave a resounding endorsement to the proposal put forward by engineer John Carson for an immersed tube design (ITD) tunnel crossing.

“However, it is disturbing to note that already, this Executive’s customary sleight-of-hand is at work. In the Transport Scotland report released by Transport Minister Tavish Scott, they talk not of the tunnel described by Mr Carson, but the entirely different bored tunnel concept.

“Curiously enough, this project would seem to be more costly than a bridge, whereas Mr Carson’s plan was decidedly lower in cost than a bridge.

“I said after the FSB meeting I would support Mr Carson’s project and I warned politicians that the people of Fife and the Lothians would not tolerate any delay.

“To do so could leave a three to four year gap from 2013 with no HGVs being able to cross the Forth at Queensferry. We have heard the engineers, we have heard the wishes of the people. Let’s get on with it!”