- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 12 February 2001
-
Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 5 April 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many times permission for new accesses to trunk roads for new or proposed developments has been refused in recent years and whether it can quantify the impact of its policy on new accesses to trunk roads on the rural economy.
Answer
During 1999 and 2000, officials within the Scottish Executive Road Network Management and Maintenance Division gave advice to Scottish planning authorities on 1250 planning applications some of which would have included requests for new accesses onto trunk roads. The determination of these planning applications then rests with the relevant local planning authority. Generally, proposals for new accesses to trunk roads are assessed by the Executive and relevant local planning authority, on a case by case basis. The benefits and costs of trunk road access are carefully assessed, (with particular regard to the likely impact on accidents and traffic flows), alongside those of the alternative options available to meet the developers' needs.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 January 2001
-
Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 4 April 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to prevent local authority workers employed in connection with trunk road maintenance being made redundant in the event that private sector bids for the trunk road unit contracts are successful and whether the tender documents specified that all existing staff be retained.
Answer
It will be for the existing and incoming operators to decide whether there is a need for workers to be made redundant. The tender documents do not require that all existing staff be retained. Our current expectation is that the TUPE Regulations will apply.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 January 2001
-
Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 4 April 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has considered all of the points raised by trade unions about the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981 (as amended) in connection with the awarding of the trunk road unit contracts, in particular those points relating to those workers who spend most but not all of their time on trunk road work; whether private sector bidders were given information about the number of employees in respect of whom the Regulations would apply in this instance and whether employees were given an opportunity to check that any such information is correct.
Answer
Employment of existing staff and workers is a matter to be resolved between the existing and new operators and staff and their Unions. During the tender period, existing employers circulated lists of staff involved. The Scottish Executive is not aware of what notice and information has been given to employees by the several operators.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 January 2001
-
Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 4 April 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the continuity of winter roads maintenance will be affected in any way by the award of any trunk road unit contracts to private sector bidders.
Answer
The award of contracts will secure the continuity of the levels of service of winter maintenance required by the Scottish Executive.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 January 2001
-
Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 4 April 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it took to establish the accuracy of comments relating to the position of staff, and the terms and conditions of such staff, currently employed by local authorities in connection with trunk roads maintenance attributed to staff of one of the private sector bidders for the trunk road unit contracts in Construction News on 9 November and, if these comments were correctly attributed, whether they would be contrary to any conditions to be included in the trunk road unit contracts and, if so, what action was taken in relation to these comments.
Answer
The Scottish Executive recognised at the outset that the comments made in Construction News on 9 November were inaccurate. The Executive issued letters to concerned councils to advise them that the articles were without foundation as no decision had at that time been taken.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2001
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 3 April 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the National Waste Strategy and national planning advice would prevent the granting of permission for a landfill site at mid Lairgs Quarry if it was shown that there was a risk of water pollution to the River Nairn from the catchment area of the proposed site.
Answer
If an application for planning permission for a landfill site at Mid-Lairgs were to be made, the National Waste Strategy: Scotland and National Planning Policy Guidelines would be important factors in its determination by the local authority. The application would also be accompanied by an environmental impact assessment which, amongst other things, would examine the risk that the proposed site posed to the River Nairn. In addition the site would be regulated by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency under the Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations 2000 and would have to meet the conditions in the EC Landfill Directive. The Directive requires sites to be situated and designed so as to meet the necessary conditions for preventing the pollution of soil, groundwater or surface water.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2001
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 3 April 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what advice it has received from Her Majesty's Government regarding the precise source and cause of the current foot-and-mouth disease outbreak and whether the possibility that the virus may have come from a landfill site at Brankley located about five miles from the farm at Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumberland has been discounted.
Answer
The Brankley landfill site has been discounted by epidemiologists as the source of the virus. The virus is a type O Asian strain and has been imported, possibly in infected meat products. Work continues to identify possible routes with which the virus has gained entry. The source farm currently is thought to be a pig farm at Burnside, Heddon on the Wall.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2001
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 3 April 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what risk of pollution to rivers landfill sites pose and what measures and safeguards are in place to reduce any such risk.
Answer
There is a potential risk to water courses from leachate. Accordingly modern landfill sites are operated to minimise water ingress and leachate is extracted and treated to a high standard before being discharged. New landfill sites will be regulated by the Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations 2000 and will have to meet the conditions in the EC Landfill Directive, which requires sites to be situated and designed so as to meet the necessary conditions for preventing the pollution of soil, groundwater or surface water.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2001
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 3 April 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will initiate a public information campaign on television and local radio stations explaining the necessary advice with regard to the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.
Answer
The Scottish Executive and other bodies, such as the NFUS, are providing regular guidance, advice and information to farmers, the public at large and other key interests. This is being done at national level but local media interests are helping as appropriate. Detailed advice has been given to farmers on the Welfare Movements Scheme, the Movement to Slaughter Scheme and the Welfare Disposal Scheme (via the Distribution Board). Additionally, farmers in the Dumfries and Galloway subject to the slaughter cull have been kept appraised of developments by letter or telephone. Helplines have been and remain in operation at the SERAD HQ and various regional offices.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2001
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 3 April 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what possible health ha'ards are posed by landfill sites close to human habitation; whether any such sites can be a source of infection of any particular disease, and, if so, which ones.
Answer
Studies into the effects on human health of living close to landfill sites have suggested that there is a need for further research. The Scottish Executive and UK Government Departments therefore commissioned the Small Areas Health Statistics Unit (SAHSU) last year to investigate the incidence of a range of cancers and birth defects around 7000 landfill sites in the UK. SAHSU is due to report by the end of May.
