First Minister has no regrets over Forth road bridge budget cuts
NICOLA Sturgeon sparked fresh anger over the Forth Road Bridge closure yesterday as she suggested she had no regrets over SNP funding cuts to the ageing crossing.
Opposition leaders attacked the First Minister as commuters faced weeks of misery and firms feared for their future due to the shutdown.
Ms Sturgeon had to defend herself against claims the budget was "hammered" as ministers lost a "gamble" it would last until the Queensferry Crossing opens next year.
Labour leader Kezia Dugdale highlighted official documents from the bridge's former operator which show it suffered a 58 per cent cut in its budget before the current crack in a beam was found.
The 2011 cut in the bridge's capital budget by Finance Secretary John Swinney finally rose to 65 per cent, according to spending watchdog Audit Scotland.
Minutes from a Forth Estuary Transport Authority meeting in October 2013 said four projects were deferred because of a lack of government funding.
This included work on the load-bearing truss end linkage system - part of which has now failed causing last week's closure.
We did have the foresight to know that an ageing structure did need replaced
The report said "deferral of part or all of these projects does increase the risk to the long term structural integrity of the bridge".
Challenging Ms Sturgeon at her weekly question session at Holyrood Ms Dugdale said: "That's key projects delayed because of SNP Government cuts.
"Short-term decisions made at the expense of the long-term future of an important national asset."
Asked by Ms Dudgale if she now accepted the budget cuts were wrong, the SNP leader replied: "No, I do not."
She said the Government did not have a "crystal ball" to predict that the crack would have appeared five years later.
"The work considered in 2010 was prompted by concerns about another part of the truss not the part that is now cracked," she told MSPs.
"We did have the foresight to know that an ageing structure did need replaced.
"That is why this Government took the decision to build a new Forth Replacement Crossing - a decision that would not have been taken had Labour remained in government."
But Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said: "I don't think the First Minister can avoid the fact that the budget for the Forth Road Bridge was hammered.
"It's clear that the authorities gambled that the old bridge could be patched up until the new one was opened and I think we now know that the gamble has failed."
Meanwhile, roads firm Amey, now responsible for maintenance, said it still hoped to have the bridge open again by the end of the month.
Detailed welding plans to fix the problem have been finalised and the roads firm is taking preventive action at seven other similar points.