Meeting of the Parliament 09 May 2018
I thank Rachael Hamilton for bringing the debate to the chamber and giving me the opportunity once again to highlight the issues that we have in the south-west of Scotland. The Minister for Transport and Islands is well aware of the campaigns that are under way to upgrade the A77 and A75. For his information, I recently took a trip in a heavy goods vehicle down the A77 all the way to Cairnryan. It was interesting to be in a 44-tonne lorry whose driver had to swerve to avoid potholes. I leave to members’ imagination how big potholes must be to have an impact on a 44-tonne lorry.
I thank Bullet Express for allowing that to happen. Going on that journey was quite enlightening, as it went through a lot of small villages such as Maybole and Girvan at around 9.30 at night, and it was striking to see how close the lorry goes to the cars and the houses on either side. It was quite interesting to come out of the other side of Ballantrae and go up that hill as the ferry was being unloaded at the other end, with other 44-tonne lorries coming the other way, which meant that the lorries in both directions were crawling along at 4mph or 5mph, with their wing mirrors missing each other by a few inches. That was quite something to see.
What is happening on the A77 between Monkton and Kilmarnock is interesting, as temporary road surface signs have appeared. How bad do the trunk roads have to become before action is taken? They are inspected weekly and are becoming extremely dangerous, especially to motorcyclists. Given the condition of the A77 and the apparent inability of the transport secretary to effectively address the issue, I am considering going elsewhere for a solution. Instead of treating this as an infrastructure issue, I have decided to treat it as an issue of culture. The A77 is no longer a road; it is a kinetic sculpture that aims to reflect the Scottish Government’s approaches to dealing with health, education and the economy—it is crumbling under pressure and is full of holes. For the next part of that art installation, I will apply to Creative Scotland for a grant to repair the roads. My working title is “Competence, or How I Learned to Stop Making Excuses and Get on with the Job”.
The second strategic transport projects review effectively means that the transport secretary will not be announcing any new major capital projects until shortly before the next election. Surely, that means that he has more time to dedicate to maintaining the existing roads network. However, even when the transport secretary has the funds, they do not seem to be spent, as there is currently a £50 million underspend. If I asked around the chamber, I am sure that we could all say how that money could be grabbed and spent. The Scottish Government is prepared to ignore south-west Scotland and allow the roads there to crumble while it crows over expensive vanity projects such as the electrification of the A9.