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I know from talking to the industry what it is keen on doing, and there are particular areas that the grant would benefit.

Obviously, we need to continue the services, so we would want to continue using the stock until such time as it is replaced.

Again, that kind of deployment, particularly in places such as Skye and Fort William, would be a decision for the Highland Council. My instinct as a former tourism cabinet secretary is that our tourism season is extending and extending; it used to be in the summer months, but it now runs from March right through to November. As a result, one could probably make a strong case for permanency of provision.

Our role, though, is to provide the funding; we do not identify specific locations. That is why we are working in partnership with local government—they are better placed to identify individual areas. Your point about the A82, Fort William and Skye is well made, but I think that there should be permanent rather than pop-up provision there. After all, if you are making that investment anyway, you are probably better to put in more permanent rather than just pop-up provision, but I will take the issue away for discussion with my Convention of Scottish Local Authorities colleagues and hear their thinking on it. It is probably quite a creative matter to consider.

Officials can correct me, but I do not think that there is anything for loans for individual households. However, your point is well made. We have tenements, housing without driveways and so on, so how we support the market in that respect is increasingly becoming part of what we need to look at.

When it comes to deploying these things, a number of innovative inventions are being put together in Scotland by Scottish companies, but one of the biggest issues is ensuring that you do not disrupt pavements for people with disabilities and so on. I go back Bob Doris’s question; whatever we do has to be accessible to everybody, and we need to look at what can be done in that respect.

I visited Trojan Energy up in Aberdeen and saw its very interesting invention. There are others, too—I should say for clarity that I am not promoting that product alone. What we have done is bring together officers from the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland to try to identify areas of commonality, guidance on what can be done and, in particular, standards. Part of that is about how we can cut down on regulation and planning to ensure rapid deployment when we are in a position to do this on a mass scale. That work will help ensure that we are in a much stronger position when we move to deployment.

The Greens brought in the target for that percentage spend on active travel as part of the Bute house agreement, which, as members well know, has ended. Our challenge is how we ensure that we continue the momentum of very welcome investment in active and sustainable travel.

As we wrote to the committee—I think Gillian Martin wrote, with input from me and my transport officials—on 4 December 2024, last year’s budget for active travel had to be scaled back. The active and sustainable travel budget went down to £157 million. As you will have identified, that has increased in this year’s budget, so we are trying to recover from where we were.

We had challenges last year. You will remember that some of the active travel funding went to support the extension of the peak fares removal pilot. Some of it obviously had to be returned to the Government in the spring budget review, and the spring budget figures will identify the extent of that. We are now able to increase active travel funding to about £187 million, which is an increase from what it was last year, but we are not getting back to the targets about which you are talking.

The most important thing is deliverability, and all these schemes can sometimes take longer to deliver than others. We do not want to lose the momentum in the projects that are available to be invested in, which is why I am pleased that, should the budget pass, we will be able to keep the momentum of investment for active and sustainable travel. Local councils are very keen to see this investment.

I hear what you say.

There is an increase in road safety investment. Even this year, it was at a record level, but we have managed to increase it again in the 2025-26 budget. A significant amount of the investment is for road safety work by local authorities. There is already a road safety improvement fund, which continues; it allows local authorities to identify support. Junctions, in particular, can be an issue. Individual councils can bid into that, including for road safety work related to 20 mph zones; councils are also allowed to use local authority transport grants for that work.

Some local authorities are moving swiftly ahead with the roll-out of 20 mph zones. Scottish Borders Council is an interesting example that is already seeing the benefits of the roll-out. As more councils deploy 20 mph zones in key areas, the investment to support that is reflected in the road safety budget, as well as in local authority grants.

I know that the deputy convener has a lot of experience; he might reflect that it could be difficult for me to identify publicly some of the challenges. Discussions are on-going. I want to respect that space so that we can have those on-going discussions.

I can tell you that £4 million has been paid out generally to local authorities, and there is £18 million this year.

There are improvements and changes. We have talked about the fleet replacement, which is important in terms of that north-east investment. We have talked about the selection process, which has concluded and has identified improvements there. However, on project timelines, I think that it was said in January 2024 that the timescale for the delivery of the commitment to deliver journey time improvements and increase capacity between Aberdeen and the central belt was under review. The position is the same as it was a year ago, so it is not a new reflection that there are challenges in the timescales. That was reflected to the committee in 2024. I cannot remember whether you were a member of this committee a year ago, so I apologise if that is news to you.