FAMILIES living near the route of the new Forth crossing have formed a protest group amid fears they will be living on a building site for the next decade.
The move comes as engineers begin survey work around South Queensferry for the new bridge – which is expected to cost between £3.2 and £4.2 billion.
The roads leading to the bridge will skirt the west of the town, close to homes in the Springfield
, Clufflat and Linn Mill areas. It is not thought that any properties will have to be bulldozed.
However, residents today said concerns about noise and pollution, along with the impact on house prices, had spurred them into action.
The protest group – which has a working title of Queensferry Unite Against Destruction (QUAD) – is hoping to galvanise local opinion and stick up for locals as the project gathers pace.
The five-and-a-half-year construction scheme for the bridge is expected to get under way in 2011.
Steven Tidy, a chartered surveyor who lives in Clufflat Braes, some 40 metres from the field where the bridge access road is likely to go, moved to the area only five months ago.
He chose the quiet cul-de-sac because his five-year-old son Jack's autism means he is particularly sensitive to noise.
Mr Tidy said: "We deliberately chose this street because of Jack's autism and because he doesn't cope very well with unexpected noise. Obviously if we are to be next to a construction site for that many years that will change everything, as it will be taking place during the best of Jack's childhood years."
A survey in South Queensferry, carried out last August, found 85 per cent of people were in favour of a tunnel rather than a bridge.
Alan Doig, 40, whose home in Clufflat is just 30 metres from the proposed route of the approach roads, is one of the residents who started QUAD.
He said: "I am sure from the Transport Scotland point of view they just want to build the bridge from point A to B, but we want to make sure they are aware of the effect all these plans will have on South Queensferry.
"We don't have a lot of information from the Government and people are worried about the noise, traffic and the impact on house prices.
"I am not sure if everyone realises the impact that this will have and we feel we need to have a voice."
Transport Scotland, the Government agency in charge of the project, today said: "It is inevitable there will be some disruption with a project as significant as this, but we will ensure these impacts are mitigated against as much as possible.
"Among a variety of surveys taking place in a wide area, ground investigations are under way to inform the development of options for the connecting roads, then subsequently to inform on the design of preferred options."
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www.transportscotland.gov.uk
• www.feta.gov.ukThe full article contains 511 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
