The SNP’s failure to deliver on their promise – made in 2007 – to fully dual the A9 is a “betrayal of communities across Scotland”, according to shadow transport minister Graham Simpson.
Leading a debate on the topic today (Wednesday), the Scottish Conservatives will call on the Scottish Government urgently to provide a revised timescale and costings for upgrading the death-trap route, and to ensure regular updates on progress are provided.
The A9 is one of the most dangerous roads in the UK but the SNP is diverting “billions away from road-building” with “terrible and avoidable human costs” and has carried out only a fraction of the work it promised to have completed by 2025.
The Scottish Conservatives are calling for immediate action by SNP ministers to disown the anti-car agenda of their Green partners and finally get this work underway, for the sake of local communities and to prevent the tragic and needless death toll from rising further.
Scottish Conservative Shadow Transport Minister Graham Simpson MSP said: “The SNP‘s abandonment of their commitment to dual the A9 by 2025 is a betrayal of communities across Scotland, who have been waiting for well over a decade for this essential upgrade.
“When transport minister Jenny Gilruth told MSPs recently that the SNP-Green Government had failed even to secure a contract for the Tomatin to Moy stretch, she was forced to admit that the timetable to complete the upgrade is ‘simply no longer achievable’.
“She was merely confirming what everyone already knew because only a tiny fraction of the work has been done since the SNP made their initial promise way back in 2007.
“A full 77 miles have yet to see any work undertaken – and now we don’t know the timescale, who will do it, or how much it will cost.
“This is not just an inexcusable delay to providing the facilities local communities urgently need for their daily lives, and on which the wider economy depends.
“It will also literally cost lives. Over the past three years, there have been more than 250 accidents on the road.
“Between 2018 and the end of last year, there were 21 fatalities, and those terrible and avoidable human costs will continue while the route remains in its present dangerous state.
“Under the influence of their fanatical anti-car coalition partners, the Greens, the SNP is diverting billions away from road-building, with enormous economic and human costs. It must immediately change course, and start to make good on the promise it made 16 years ago.”
Notes:
The Scottish Conservative motion reads: “That the Scottish Parliament believes the Scottish Government’s failure to deliver on its promise to dual the A9 between Perth and Inverness by 2025 is a betrayal; recognises the vital importance of this route to the economic and social wellbeing of the communities it serves; further notes the serious safety implications of failing to meet the commitment to dual, with lives lost and serious accidents since the commitment was made; calls on the Scottish Government to provide a specific date for when a revised timescale of works and costs will be published, and to ensure that Transport Scotland publish a quarterly update setting out progress against published targets.”
In a statement to the Scottish Parliament, transport minister Jenny Gilruth admitted the dualling programme would not meet its target. She explained to MSPs that the price of the tender for the Tomatin to Moy section of the A9 was significantly higher than expected and the Scottish Government had decided not to award the contract at this time, and that the A9 Dualling Programme will not be completed in full by 2025. (Scottish Parliament, 8 February 2023, link).
The A9 saw 21 fatal accidents and 254 non-fatal accidents between 2018 to 2021. An FOI published on the Scottish Government website based on data held by Transport Scotland, provided by Police Scotland. (Scottish Government, Freedom of Information Response, 7 December 2021, link).
The SNP has been promising to dual the A9 for 15 years. The SNP promised to dual the A9 in their 2007 manifesto and in 2011 the Scottish Government’s Infrastructure Investment Plan (IIP) committed to upgrade the A9 by 2025. The plan was to turn the A9 between the cities of Perth and Inverness from a single to a dual carriageway. (Transport Scotland - A9 dualling Perth to Inverness, accessed 31 October 2022, link; SNP Manifesto, 5 April 2007, link).
The Greens are a malign influence on the SNP and have already diverted billions of pounds away from road building. Patrick Harvie said: ‘We will be shifting billions of pounds in this parliamentary session away from road building and into decarbonising our homes and buildings.’ (The Scottish Greens, 1 November 2021, link).