Transport Minister Derek Mackay still won¹t say sorry for chaos on Forth road bridge
BELEAGUERED Transport Minister Derek Mackay yesterday refused to apologise for the chaos caused by the Forth Road Bridge closure.
The SNP politician also insisted he had not misled MSPs and struggling commuters as he battles to save his political career.
With motorists facing weeks of misery, and companies fearing they could go bust because of the month-long shutdown, Mr Mackay continued to dodge responsibilty for the debacle.
But opposition MSPs said the public was ³rapidly losing patience with the minister following a torrid week for him and for Nicola Sturgeon¹s administration.
A contract to strengthen part of the Edinburgh-Fife bridge was scrapped in 2010 and a year later the Scottish Government slashed funding by 65 per cent leading to more stalled maintenance.
No one is accusing Derek Mackay of devising and executing the crack himself
Mr Mackay sparked fury on Wednesday when he finally admitted the deferred repair work would have prevented a crack appearing in a steel beam that caused the closure.
This came after he told the Scottish Parliament that the works included in the cancelled contract were not where the fault has occurred².
Yesterday Mr Mackay returned to the airwaves where he again sought to defend the government's record and shift the blame on axed operator the Forth Estuary Transport Authority (Feta).
Challenged to say sorry on BBC's Good Morning Scotland he said: "Well, you know, the fault was unforeseen so I can hardly apologise for an unforeseen incident.
Mr Mackay insisted he had not misled MSPs and reiterated the three-quarters of an inch crack had only occurred 'in the last few weeks'.
He also repeated claims that all maintenance and critical repair works had been previously carried out.
But critics pointed to Feta documents which showed some of its planned maintenance in the now faulty area was stalled because of funding cuts.
Scottish Labour's deputy leader, Alex Rowley said: "Derek Mackay's handling of this situation has gone from bad to worse this week.
"For the SNP Transport Minister to go on the radio this morning and say no works were delayed is unacceptable, when the evidence of budget cuts and project delays is there in black and white. It¹s no wonder the public are rapidly losing patience with Derek Mackay."
Scottish Tory MSP Murdo Fraser added: "No one is accusing Derek Mackay of devising and executing the crack himself.
"But commuters would like to hear some sort of contrition from the people who are in charge.
"Unfortunately for the transport minister, that is him, and instead of protecting his ego he should be apologising on behalf of a Scottish Government which has cut bridge funding and overlooked repairs that would have addressed this issue."
Struggling firms last night warned the costs were adding up putting business on the brink.
The Freight Transport Association (FTA) said some members had seen expenses increase by £11,000 per week because of the shutdown.
FTA director of policy Karen Dee said: "This is not just a problem for our Scottish members, it is having an impact throughout the UK and the priority must be to get the bridge open to all traffic as soon as possible."
Meanwhile, a car ban on the Kincardine Bridge which has been restricted to heavy goods vehicles and buses since the Forth Road Bridge closure is to be lifted at weekends, starting from 8pm last night.