Seòmar agus comataidhean

All evidence submitted to the public local inquiry will be published on the Scottish Government''s website as soon as possible. This is a huge task, so the information will appear gradually over the coming weeks as it is added to the system.

Responsibility for maintaining Scotland''s public roads and footpaths, including the purchase and use of road salt, sits with local authorities and trunk road operators. The Scottish Government does not therefore hold significant reserves of salt or grit for allocation to councils and operators.

I also refer the member to the answer to question S3W-30519 on 18 January 2010 which is available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The Scottish Government is doing everything possible to ensure that councils, trunk road operators and salt suppliers work together to ensure best use of available salt supplies in order minimise the risk to public safety. In the event of a local authority being at risk of running out of road salt, existing arrangements for supporting mutual aid between councils and trunk road operators would apply, in addition to ensuring that the relevant salt supplier was advised of the situation to inform its delivery schedules.

The Scottish Government has established a Scottish Salt Cell, to support and advise councils and operators in managing the current supply and demand for salt, and to explore options for securing alternative supplies.

In order to provide consistent advice to the UK''s main salt suppliers, which supply to councils and trunk road operators across the UK, a UK Salt Cell has been established. The UK Salt Cell brings together the Department for Transport (Chair), the Scottish Government, the Welsh Assembly Government, Transport Scotland, the Highways Agency, COSLA, the Local Government Association and other relevant agencies and departments. It meets twice-weekly to monitor the salt supply and delivery position across the UK, and to advise suppliers on the most effective distribution of available salt supplies. To support that process, Scottish Government officials are also in regular contact with Department for Transport and colleagues.

Although a thaw is now taking place in many parts of Scotland, there is currently no indication that the rate of thawing will result in severe flooding problems. Nevertheless, people should heed the advice on SEPA''s website and be prepared for flooding. SEPA''s flood warning staff continue to work closely with the Met Office and people should look out for any flood watches or warnings which may be issued on SEPA''s Floodline service. In response to the severe weather, the Scottish Government has convened its resilience room, and all strategic co-ordinating groups are providing updates on potential flooding problems.

The geographic areas covered by city regions in Scotland are not uniquely defined. For example, the former Cities Growth Fund (the funding for which is no longer earmarked and, since 1 April 2008, has been included within the General Capital Grant paid by the Scottish Government to local authorities in Scotland) allocated funding directly to the councils containing the six formally designated cities in Scotland (Aberdeen City Council for Aberdeen, Dundee City Council for Dundee, the City of Edinburgh Council for Edinburgh, Glasgow City Council for Glasgow, Highland Council for Inverness and Stirling Council for Stirling). These authorities, in consultation with others including local communities and neighbouring authorities, each then drew up a published city vision plan to allocate funding within what each determined was the appropriate city region for their area.

The Scottish Government has not conducted any such economic impact assessment but believes that city status would be an asset for Perth.

SEPA will authorise applications made under the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Act 2005 (CAR) for activities which clearly demonstrate improvements in flood risk management.

When considering CAR licence applications, SEPA takes into account the social, economic and environmental impacts of such works, including impacts on protected species, aiming to strike a balance between all these factors. There is no provision for compensation to be paid by either SEPA or the Scottish Government for farmers and land managers affected by flooding.

Scottish ministers are statutory consultees under the Environmental Impact Assessment (Scotland) Regulations 1999. The proposal to build an incinerator in Perth required an Environmental Impact Assessment to be undertaken and accordingly Scottish ministers were consulted. Scottish Government responded, without substantive comments, to Perth and Kinross Council in April 2009.

However, in respect to the actual application itself Scottish Government did not make any representations.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-29695 on 14 December 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.