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Question Time
SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE
General Questions
Fife (Economic Regeneration)
To ask the Scottish
Executive how it plans to regenerate
the economy in Fife. (S2O-6640)
Mr Ted
Brocklebank (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con):
To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to regenerate the economy in
Fife. (S2O-6640)
The Deputy Minister
for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning (Allan Wilson):
Our enterprise strategy, "A Smart, Successful Scotland", provides strategic
direction to the enterprise networks and the framework for direct support
available from the Executive. The strategy sets out the basis for economic
regeneration, in Fife as elsewhere, with the aim of improving productivity
and competitiveness across the whole of Scotland.
Mr Brocklebank:
I thank the minister for that answer — I think. Does he accept that one of
the most effective ways of boosting the Fife economy would be to abolish the
tolls on the Forth and Tay road bridges, rather than to increase their cost?
That would not only encourage people to visit Fife — where there is a
feeling, particularly in the tourism sector that there is a conspiracy to
close Fife down altogether — but it would free up commuter traffic at busy
times. Does he further accept that the Executive should help to meet the
spiralling cost of repairs to the Tay road bridge, and that regular users of
the bridge should not have to foot the bill for what is part of the national
road network?
Allan Wilson:
As I said in response to a similar question last week on the Erskine bridge,
transport infrastructure is a key driver of economic growth. That is a fact
of which we are wholly cognisant in the Executive, hence the substantial
resource that we have put into improving transport infrastructure both in
road and rail transportation throughout Scotland.
That is a pattern of investment that we intend to continue. How best we
invest is a decision for ministers that we take in the course of the
spending review; toll charges, as an item in that expenditure programme, are
always under consideration.
Marilyn Livingstone
(Kirkcaldy) (Lab):
Does the minister agree that the Central Fife action plan, which considers
the particular problems that face the economy of Central Fife, is crucial to
the whole economy of Fife? Will he meet me to discuss how we can maximise
its impact?
Allan Wilson:
I look forward to meeting Marilyn Livingstone. Scottish Enterprise Fife has
an effective strategy for developing and implementing national projects, as
well as positioning Fife as a broader city region in contact with Edinburgh
to the south and Dundee to the north, and helping Fife businesses to
compete. All of those factors will be considered when we get the opportunity
to meet.
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