Skye Bridge Anti Toll Protest

Grand Committee Raise Bridge Issue

The call for an independent public inquiry into the funding of the Skye Bridge is likely to be raised at the Scottish Grand Committee in Edinburgh this morning. SKAT, at a packed meeting in Portree on Saturday night, unanimously called on Scottish MPs to debate a Bridge resolution as a matter of urgency. The latest move follows Highland Council’s support last week for an independent inquiry. SKAT spokesman, Alasdair Maclean said last night that the Scottish Grand Committee was the perfect forum for raising a Bridge inquiry motion at this stage given the support expressed for it by Highland Council and other bodies.

In the meantime SKAT is contacting all the Councils in Scotland to seek their support for calls for an independent public inquiry.

At the same meeting SKAT discussed Robbie the Pict’s decision to lodge a petition of writ of interdict against Miller Civil Engineering Ltd. to prevent them from collecting tolls on the Skye bridge. This initiative is founded on the strong belief that Miller Civil Engineering are, according to statute, not properly empowered to exact tolls from drivers on the road crossing between Skye and the mainland. After the meeting the following statement was issued:- "SKAT notes and supports the initiative proposed by Robbie the Pict to interdict Miller Civil Engineering."

SKAT convener, Drew Millar, is confident that initiatives such as Robbie’s and the move to bring the Scottish Grand Committee into the debate will help bring the whole Bridge affair to a satisfactory conclusion. "All toll protesters have become increasingly exasperated by the inability, or unwillingness, of the political and legal system to right what is so clearly a terrible wrong. They have been trying to keep the lid on the affair in the hope that it might go away. But if they believe they can solve this problem by doing nothing then they are deluding themselves. SKAT’s continuing campaign is gradually boxing the lot of them into a corner and these new initiatives will serve to further concentrate their minds."

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Most recent revision, 13 March 1998