- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 5 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what the peak traffic densities are on the (a) Mollinsburn to Auchenkilns junction and (b) Auchenkilns junction to Haggs stretches of the A80.
Answer
The most recent peaktraffic flows, for the year 2006, are:
Mollinsburn to Auchenkilns(A80 East of M73 Junction)
Morning Peak – 5,166 vehicles (two-way flow)
Evening Peak – 5,534 vehicles (two-way flow)
Auchenkilns to Haggs(South of M80 Junction 4)
Morning Peak – 5,499 vehicles (two-way flow)
Evening Peak – 5,629 vehicles (two-way flow).
Peak traffic flowsare available from the Scottish Roads Traffic Database (SRTDb) which can be foundat http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 5 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what traffic growth has been on the (a) Mollinsburn to Auchenkilns junction and (b) Auchenkilns junction to Haggs stretches of the A80 over the last 10 years.
Answer
(a) Mollinsburn toAuchenkilns junction has experienced growth of approximately 14.5% between 1994-2004.
(b) Auchenkilns junctionto Haggs has experienced growth of approximately 25% between 1994-2004.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 5 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what allowance will be made in the tender documents for the construction of the online upgrade of the A80 to full motorway status to cover any additional costs due to unexpected ground subsistence that may occur during the period of the contract.
Answer
The contract for theupgrading of the A80, which is currently still being negotiated, envisages thatthe contractor will be responsible to cover any costs due to unexpected ground subsidence.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 5 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to ensure that no subsidence events occur on the M80 in the vicinity of Castlecary, as occurred recently on the A80.
Answer
The contract for theupgrading of the A80, which is currently still being negotiated, envisages thatthe contractor will be responsible for the risks associated with subsidence on theM80.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 5 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what the recommended traffic capacity will be on the (a) Mollinsburn to Auchenkilns junction and (b) Auchenkilns junction to Haggs stretches of the route of the M80 when it has been completed.
Answer
The traffic flow rangesfor use in the assessment of new rural roads, as recommended in the Design Manualfor Roads and Bridges, are as follows:
| Location | Carriageway Standard | Opening Year Annual Average Daily Traffic Flow |
| Minimum | Maximum |
| Mollinsburn to Auchenkilns junction | D3M | 25,000 | 67,000 |
| Auchenkilns junction to Mollinsburn | D2M | Up to 41,000 |
It should be notedthat these opening year flows are only used as starting points for economic evaluationof new roads and are dependent on many physical characteristics of the road beingassessed, such as frequency and type of junctions.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 25 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 5 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what the costs were of organising the local government elections in (a) 1999, (b) 2003 and (c) 2007.
Answer
The Scottish Governmentfunds specific elements of the costs involved with local government elections (suchas the national publicity campaign and in 2007 the additional costs associated withe-counting). However, the majority of the expenditure associated with running anelection is met by local authorities from within their own budgets, and specificinformation on this is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 1 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many prosecutions have taken place as a result of evidence gathered by police searches using stop and search powers under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 since the granting of these powers.
Answer
This information isnot held.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 September 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 22 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-3653 by Stewart Maxwell on 12 September 2007, how many wheelchair users are estimated to be living in social rented accommodation.
Answer
NHS Scotland wheelchairservices are provided from five regional centres and independent report
Movingforward: Review of NHS wheelchair and seating services in Scotland publishedin 2006 reports some 96,000 users registered with these centres in 2005:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/127201/0030495.pdf.This will includeusers living in communal establishments, such as nursing homes, and people withdiffering levels of use, from complete dependency to very occasional use. However,there is wide variation between the figures reported by individual centres in thenumber of registered users per head of population. This is in part due to regionaldifferences in identifying and recording the more “active” users as distinct from“registered” users. In addition, a number of users obtain services from privateproviders rather than the NHS. Such users will not be included in the figures providedby the regional centres.
There is no directestimate of the number of wheelchair users living in social rented accommodation.The Scottish Household Survey gives an indication of the tenure of respondents inprivate households who use wheelchairs. The most recent data available for 2005and 2006 show some 46% of wheelchair users were living in social rented accommodation,representing about 2% of respondents in the sector (data from two years have beencombined due to small base numbers).
Changes in buildingregulations over the past few years have lead to increased accessibility of themore recent mainstream new build, particularly in the social sector, resulting inhigher levels of barrier-free housing which can more readily be adapted to meetthe particular needs of wheelchair users.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 2 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many playing fields have been used for housing and what hectarage they have covered in each year since 1990.
Answer
This information isnot held centrally. However, sportscotland prepares an annual monitoring reportlisting all planning applications on which they have been consulted. This identifiesthe site, what has been lost due to the development and what facility if any hasbeen put in place either on site or elsewhere as compensation. It does not identifywhat form of development has prompted the planning application or the hectarage,and it only covers applications on which sportscotland have been consulted. Thefigures do not include any new pitches that may have been created without a formalplanning consultation or any that might have been lost due to neglect or lack ofuse.The sportscotland monitoring reports for 2005and 2006 are available on their website
http://www.sportscotland.org.uk/ChannelNavigation/Resource+Library/Publications/Planning+applications+affecting+playing+fields.htm.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 September 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 1 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how much interest on borrowings Scottish Water has paid in each year since its creation.
Answer
A breakdown of theinterest paid by Scottish Water on its borrowings for each year may be found inits Annual Accounts. These are available in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre under the following reference numbers:
| Year | Bib. Number |
| 2002-03 | 28754 |
| 2003-04 | 33541 |
| 2004-05 | 36848 |
| 2005-06 | 39906 |
| 2006-07 | 43566 |
