Meeting of the Parliament 02 November 2022
I, too, thank Graham Simpson for allowing Parliament to have this debate and for setting its tone, which I think has been entirely in keeping with the seriousness of the issues. I also thank Neil Bibby for lodging Labour’s amendment, which might give me an opportunity, if time permits, to reference ferries without incurring the wrath of the chair for being off-piste.
I also declare an interest. Unlike Edward Mountain and perhaps one or two other colleagues, I am a regular user of the A9, although not, I appreciate, as regular as some. I observe that some of the issues in relation to connectivity and, indeed, safety apply as much beyond Inverness and further north as they do in relation to the Perth to Inverness stage. However, I will focus most of my remarks on the A9, as I am more familiar with the conditions and circumstances on it than I am with the A96.
The case for improvement by dualling has long been accepted, and dualling has long been promised. What we are talking about is the pace at which that commitment is delivered. One of the long-standing arguments has an economic one about the better connectivity that we need, not least between some of our main cities—Perth, Inverness and Aberdeen—but also between many of the outlying towns and villages beyond them. Neil Bibby quite rightly drew attention to travel times, some of which, by rail as well as by road, are absolutely ridiculous by European standards and even by the standards in other parts of the United Kingdom. If we are trying to encourage people out of their cars and on to public transport, those travel times are unlikely to serve that purpose.
However, the focus of the debate is rightly on the safety case for dualling. I looked at the statistics for 2012 to 2019, and there appears to have been a doubling of deaths and serious injuries over that period. I appreciate that there has been a slight change in the way in which serious injuries are captured in the statistics, but they are fairly frightening figures. When we layer upon that what we have seen over the past 12 months, the case seems absolutely unanswerable.
There are undoubtedly individual factors involved in each case. As a regular user of the A9, it often occurs to me that there is a mixture of regular users who are very confident on the road and people, particularly tourists, who are unfamiliar and underconfident, which is a recipe for problems.
We have seen some of those problems arising from the improvements that we have seen in recent years. A situation in which drivers move from single to dual carriageways and in and out of overtaking stretches can be very confusing, particularly for those who are unfamiliar with the road. Alongside that, even for regular users of the road, some of the junctions can be somewhat confusing and therefore precarious.
The safety case is absolutely compelling, but there are other things that need to be done, too. We need to see that modal shift, particularly in terms of getting more freight off the road. Again, I would make that argument for north of Inverness as well as between Perth and Inverness.
With regard to public transport, we need to look beyond the main routes—having bus routes that link in to those main routes are absolutely vital if we are to encourage more people to take up those services.
That talks to the wider strategic review of transport, which is where, using Neil Bibby’s amendment, I will segue into the issue of the strategic transport projects review. The exclusion of Orkney’s lifeline air and ferry services from that review is absolutely inexcusable and needs to be addressed. I have had useful meetings with the minister on that issue, and I hope that she will be able to confirm that it will be addressed.
I again thank Graham Simpson for allowing Parliament to have this debate and to show the cross-party support that there is for pressing ahead as quickly as possible with the dualling of these vital arteries.