FEW, IF any, redundancies are expected as a result of the closure of the tolls on the Tay Road Bridge, it was reported to the Joint Board meeting in Dundee yesterday.

Bridge manager John Crerar told the board there have been a series of meetings with the trade unions since the bill outlining the proposals for abolition of tolls was published by the Scottish Government on September 3.

He said, “Although the tolls will be removed, we will still need staff to deal with traffic management, breakdowns and emergencies.

“There will still be a duty inspector in the control room and two officers in a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week operation.

“That would require a minimum of five inspectors and 10 bridge officers, a reduction of 11 on the current number of employees.

“Until we get rotas sorted out, numbers could vary.”

He explained that, unlike the Forth crossing, staff in Dundee deal with security as well as collecting tolls.

“There are two officers retiring and we have two temporary staff. We also have some vacancies in maintenance and taking all that into account, numbers should even out.

“We also have three or four staff within a year or two of retiring and it may be that we could offer them early retirement,” Mr Crerar said.

He added that some of the toll collectors had expressed an interest in transferring to maintenance and once staff and unions have been consulted about new rotas, it is possible there could be no redundancies.

Members were told by treasurer David Dorward that the Tay Road Bridge Board will continue in existence, after the tolls go, to be responsible for the management of the bridge.

The Bridge Board’s outstanding debt of £15 million will be written off with a one-off grant and subsequent revenue and capital costs will be funded by 100% grants from government.

Depending on progress of the bill through the Scottish Parliament, where committees are now considering the legislation, the tolls could disappear on December 31/January 1.