Meeting of the Parliament 17 March 2015
I congratulate Mike MacKenzie on securing a debate on one of the most significant roads—and certainly the most dangerous road—to the Highlands and Islands. It is a credit to Mr MacKenzie that he recognises that. I know that the SNP has pledged to dual the A9 from Perth to Inverness, but when will that happen?
I wish to declare an interest, in that I often drive the A9 from Edinburgh to Inverness and beyond. Some years ago I was caught by the A9 average-speed cameras beyond the Forth road bridge while on my way to a funeral in Perth. I still maintain that I was in a queue of cars that were all going too fast but, nonetheless, I paid the penalty and took the points.
The A9 is part dual carriageway and part two-lane road, which is a recipe for danger, especially for tourists who are used to driving on the right-hand side of the road. I remember well the words of Lord Burton, who was roads convener of the old Inverness County Council—now that was a council. He always maintained that the road had been built with dualling in mind and he was always furiously indignant that the preparations had never been taken forward. It should have been dualled much earlier. When we look at motorways in Spain, France and Italy and the multiple-lane highways all over the United States, we realise the poverty of the condition of roads in the north of Scotland.