Hansard

The next continued petitions are PE1610, on upgrading the A75, by Matt Halliday, and PE1657, on upgrading the A77, by Donald McHarrie on behalf of the A77 Action Group. We welcome Finlay Carson MSP, who is in attendance for the petitions. John Scott MSP will sit in on this part of the meeting as well, and I will call him if he wants to make a contribution at a later stage. PE1610 calls on the Scottish Government to upgrade the A75 Euro route to dual carriageway for its entirety as soon as possible. PE1657 calls on the Scottish Government to dual the A77 from Ayr, at Whitletts roundabout, south to the two ferry ports that are located at Cairnryan, including the point at which the A77 connects with the A75. The committee previously agreed to consider the petitions together. Members may remember that, at the Conveners Group meeting with the First Minister on 13 November 2019, I raised the two petitions with the First Minister. The First Minister advised that she would respond to the committee in writing. Despite repeated requests for that information since December 2019, including in a letter sent to the First Minister in January 2021, no response has been received. Since our last consideration, we have received submissions from the North Channel partnership, Allan Dorans MP, Dual the A75, Councillor Willie Scobie and Catherine Branson, as well as four submissions from the A77 Action Group. They are summarised in the clerk’s note. I found the submissions interesting. My reflection, as ever, is that this is very much a cross-cutting issue—it is about transport, the environment, tourism and the economy. The information that we received from the North Channel partnership about the implications and impact of not having an efficient system of getting into the port was particularly interesting. The committee had planned to visit the affected communities, but we were unable to do that because Covid arrived and we all went virtual. I have always been interested in the issue. It is not just about the roads; it is about the implications of getting the right approach. We have to think about how best we can take forward the petition and whether we have gone as far as we can at this point. I ask Finlay Carson to speak first and then committee members. If John Scott wants to comment, we can hear from him after that.