§ Mr. Maclennanasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what progress he has made in the preparatory 428W work for the Dornoch Firth crossing; if the design work is complete; and when he expects construction work to begin.
§ Mr. Allan StewartThere were objections to draft line of road orders made public last year, and revised proposals will be published once soil investigations have been carried out. Detailed design must await the making of orders.
The trunk road programme is currently under review, and the case for an early start on this project has to be judged against the claims of other schemes elsewhere in Scotland. However, the design and procedural work involved is such that, even with the highest priority for money within the programme, the earliest possible financial year for a start of construction would be 1985–86.