Committee
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee 01 May 2024
01 May 2024 · S6 · Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Item of business
Continued Petitions
A832 (Adoption as Trunk Road) (PE1980)
Our next petitions, which were lodged by Derek Noble, are coupled. PE1974 calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to adopt the A890 as a trunk road and to resolve the safety problems associated with the Stromeferry bypass, and PE1980 calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to adopt the A832 between Achnasheen and Gorstan as a trunk road, thereby connecting that route to the existing trunk road network. We last considered the petitions at our meeting on 6 September 2023, when we agreed to write to the Minister for Transport, who is now the Cabinet Secretary for Transport. The cabinet secretary has responded to our request for clarity by stating that the strategic transport projects review 2 “considered local roads to be ‘out of scope’ unless they provided direct access to a major port or airport; linked to a nationally significant National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) development site; or where a local road intersected a trunk road where bus priority or active travel measures were proposed.” The cabinet secretary has said that it was considered that “neither the A890 or A832 met these criteria for consideration as part of the strategic transport network and were duly not included as part of the appraisal or STPR2 final recommendations.” We have been joined by Rhoda Grant. The committee is wrestling with a fairly direct response to the aims of the petitions from the cabinet secretary, but we would be happy to hear anything that you might like to say. 10:00
In the same item of business
The Convener
Con
Our next petitions, which were lodged by Derek Noble, are coupled. PE1974 calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to adopt the A890 ...
Rhoda Grant (Highlands and Islands) (Lab)
Lab
I am grateful to the committee for giving me the opportunity to speak, and I am grateful to Derek Noble for pursuing PE1974. I share the committee’s disappo...
The Convener
Con
Thank you. You make a very powerful case in respect of the petitioner and the aims of his petitions. The issue that the committee must wrestle with is the—as...
Fergus Ewing
SNP
I do not think that there is anything further that we can do. I have much sympathy with the points that Rhoda Grant made about the practical difficulties tha...
Foysol Choudhury (Lothian) (Lab)
Lab
That was a powerful presentation from Rhoda Grant. Can we ask the Scottish Government whether it will work with local authorities, because so many hours are ...
The Convener
Con
I was going to suggest that, if we take forward Mr Ewing’s proposal to close the petitions, we couple that with writing to the Scottish Government to, as wel...
Foysol Choudhury
Lab
If we close the petitions, we will be saying to the Government that the matter is closed. We will not be giving the Government the option to look at the poss...
The Convener
Con
The Government has given a clear direction on its position. As a committee, we have to be satisfied that we have a realistic opportunity to advance matters. ...