Committee
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee 06 September 2023
06 Sep 2023 · S6 · Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Item of business
Continued Petitions
A832 (Adoption as Trunk Road) (PE1980)
I endorse what Rhoda Grant said. If she does not mind my saying so, if rock falls on the A890 have been a problem since she was at school, the issue did not arise yesterday. I can put it no more candidly than that. To be serious, this is a Highland problem, and it has been highlighted very well. The community councils have replied. Plockton community council has pointed out that, when the road is closed, there is a 130-mile diversion. Who in the central belt would put up with that? The community council also refers to the closures because of rock landslides, which Rhoda Grant has referred to today, and the fact that the road surface is “an embarrassment” with “potholes that look like World War 1 shell craters”. I do like unvarnished prose, uncluttered by euphemism and Government jargon. However, the serious point is that, although Transport Scotland has said that the road does not meet the criteria, it has not said why it does not. It has listed the criteria, and, as Rhoda Grant said, some of the criteria appear absolutely to apply. The road links remote communities and key tourist areas—those two criteria are clearly met. Deploying said Government-style prose, Transport Scotland says: “Although there is linkage in relation to the A890 with some of these criteria, it is our assessment that the A890 does not sufficiently meet the criteria to be incorporated into the strategic motorway and trunk road network”. However, it does not say why. I think that our job is to tease out why it does not sufficiently meet those criteria. As I said before, Highland Council covers an area larger than Belgium and 20 per cent larger than Wales and has a far larger road network than any other local authority—even Scottish Borders Council, which has a substantial one. The burden of maintenance of those local roads is massive. If the A890 is designated as a national trunk road, which I believe it should be, that would at least diminish the impossible burden that Highland Council’s roads department bears in relation to dealing with the pothole situation across the network. I strongly endorse what Rhoda Grant has argued for today, and I think that we need to pursue this issue further. It might be difficult to do so but, at the end of the day, Transport Scotland has got to show that it understands and is sympathetic to the interests of the Highlands. At the moment, the strong feeling in the Highlands is that that is not the case on the part of that Glasgow-based quango.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Con
Instead of considering PE1973, I will jump ahead on the agenda, because we now have Rhoda Grant with us, and I am happy to try to facilitate Rhoda’s morning ...
Rhoda Grant (Highlands and Islands) (Lab)
Lab
Thank you for giving me the chance to speak to the petitions. I cannot stress enough how vital the links in question are to the west Highlands. They link the...
The Convener
Con
Thank you very much. Fergus Ewing engaged in the discussion when we last considered the petitions, and he is keen to comment.
Fergus Ewing
SNP
I endorse what Rhoda Grant said. If she does not mind my saying so, if rock falls on the A890 have been a problem since she was at school, the issue did not ...
The Convener
Con
I am going to assume that there was no connection between your observations about Ms Grant being at school and world war 1 potholes. I take it that that was ...
The Convener
Con
Rhoda, I think that your attendance contributed to a different outcome being achieved in our consideration of the petition, so I thank you for that.