(S3O-10610) Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route

1. Nigel Don (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Government whether the reported legal action by objectors might cause delay to the completion of the Aberdeen western peripheral route. (S3O-10610)

The Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change (Stewart Stevenson):

It is likely that the actions of the objectors will cause significant delay to the construction of the Aberdeen western peripheral route. However, until we consider the terms of each challenge it is difficult to be precise about the impact on the project timetable.

Nigel Don: Is the minister aware that much of Road Sense's case appears already to have been taken by the Aberdeen Greenbelt Alliance to the Bern convention secretariat and comprehensively dismissed? Does the minister agree that, in view of the substantial costs that are associated with any delay to the project, the objectors should bear the costs of any further appeal?

Stewart Stevenson: It is worth making the point that we have yet to be served with the court papers that are associated with the appeal, so we have not yet had the opportunity to examine in any detail the basis of it. We are aware of the Bern convention activity but, of course, in view of the legal issues that surround the matter, I am somewhat constrained in what I can say.

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): Notwithstanding the legal action, will the minister tell us when he expects to invite companies to tender for contracts for constructing the route and when he will be able to tell us in more detail what funds the Scottish Government and the two local authorities will allocate to the project?

Stewart Stevenson: Richard Baker will be aware that the two local authorities have committed to providing 9.5 per cent of the funding each, thus leaving the Scottish Government to provide 81 per cent of the funding for the AWPR and 100 per cent of the funding for the fast-link route. We have stated on our website for some considerable time, and I indicated on 10 June last year in answer to question S3W-24477 from Nicol Stephen, that we are considering a non-profit-distributing trust as the funding vehicle.

The timetable will, to some extent, be governed by the legal challenge. However, now that the appeal period is over, we are considering taking our next steps in very early course, subject to what we see in the court papers when they are served upon us.

It may be worth reminding members that we split consideration of the AWPR into separate chunks so that a legal challenge may or may not affect the whole route. We deliberately did that to protect the scheme's integrity should it be subject to legal challenge. However, until we see the challenges, we cannot be certain whether we have succeeded.