A Perthshire politician involved in a horror crash on the notorious A9 over 30 years ago is calling for a parliamentary inquiry into the lack of progress on the road’s major dualling project.
Conservative Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Murdo Fraser was speaking after he and most of his party voted against a motion by SNP transport minister Jenny Gilruth to set out a revised timescale for completion of the £3 billion programme.
The Scottish Government has said it cannot guarantee to meet its promise to dual 70 miles of the A9 between Perth and Inverness by 2025.
Just 11 miles has been delivered so far with the renewed dualling timescale to be debated in parliament later this year after it was passed by ministers.
MSP for Inverness and Nairn Fergus Ewing has secured an agreement in principle from the petitions committee to hold an inquiry, into what has gone wrong and how to accelerate the project.
He has been working alongside Mr Fraser and Scottish Labour’s Rhoda Grant.
The Scottish Conservative tabled their own motion calling on the government to provide a specific date for when a revised timescale of works and costs will be published. Seventeen people have been killed on the road in the past year – the most lethal 12 months for the A9 in 15 years.
Mr Fraser said: “We know that constituents in the Highlands and Islands and Perthshire are rightly furious on hearing the pathetic excuses trotted out from the Transport Minister for lack of progress on dualling the A9, and this has now been made even worse by all the Highlands and Islands and Perthshire MSPs betraying their constituents by voting against A9 dualling.
“I am afraid that there will be more deaths this year, next year and every year after until the dual carriageway is completed.”
Mr Fraser suffered multiple fractures and spent weeks in hospital after being involved in a head-on collision on a single carriageway stretch of the road near Carrbridge in 1990.
He added: “I hope that a parliamentary inquiry will be carried out — maybe that could be looked at by the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee or the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee.”
Meanwhile, Scottish Green Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Mark Ruskell claims the dualling of the A9 was “never primarily” for road safety and that community-led solutions need to be prioritised instead.
“Improvements to the A9 cannot come soon enough for the communities that I represent,” he commented.
“But if we want to maximise the number of lives saved and accidents avoided across the whole of Scotland’s road network including the A9, then we need to invest carefully in the right measures to prevent accidents.
“The resident groups that I have spoken to have highlighted the urgent need for safety improvements, better lighting at junctions, monitoring cameras and appropriate speed limits.
“I would urge the Scottish Government to double down on these suggestions.”
A Transport Scotland spokesperson referred to Ms Gilruth’s comments on February 8, when she said the Scottish Government had an “unwavering commitment to delivering the benefits of the completed A9 dualling programme”.
