Committee
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee 27 November 2024
27 Nov 2024 · S6 · Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Item of business
Continued Petitions
A82 Upgrade (PE1967)
I support Mr Torrance’s suggestion. I was also struck by the petitioner’s most recent submission, of 12 November, which I hope the cabinet secretary will respond to at any such evidence session, and in particular, what might be regarded as a bull point, or the bull point, that “We are amazed that anyone would try to build a road on the existing route under constant threat of landslides from 200,000 tonnes of unstable material. Work will constantly be stopped every time there is movement on the hillside, increasing building costs, and delay delivery of a solution.” The submission goes on from there. Incidentally, the petitioner’s original submission, in December 2021, referred to a figure of 100,000 tonnes, which seems to have grown to 200,000. No matter what the tonnage is, there is an awful lot of material. I am familiar with that particular area from the Munro-bagging days of my long-distant past and we all know that there is a constant threat of landslides in that area. I am mystified as to why that route could be chosen, particularly after it has gone through the process of preferred route selection. I am not as experienced, or as long in the tooth, as the convener and deputy convener when it comes to this petition—I am just a junior—but I find it baffling that we would spend £400 million or more on a solution that seems patently flawed. I wanted to make that point ad longum, as m’luds might say, because that has not been explained to me and I would like to know the answer. My final point is that the argument will not disappear. Jackie Baillie and I have been around for quite a long time and we know that serious arguments, which can seem to the ordinary punter to be unassailable, do not go away. They just fester and that festering process results in disillusion with Governments and Parliaments. I wanted to make that point as best I could.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Con
Do members agree to consider the next two petitions together? I propose that we discuss each petition in turn, with a common suggestion for how we might go f...
The Convener
Con
PE1916, lodged by Councillors Douglas Philand and Donald Kelly, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to instigate a public inquir...
Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab)
Lab
Thank you, convener, and thank you for your kind words, which I hope will be sustained throughout the meeting. The petitioners are calling for a public inq...
The Convener
Con
This petition runs through the parliamentary DNA of David Torrance and me because we have lived with it parliamentary session after parliamentary session. We...
Jackie Baillie
Lab
I welcome John and Anne Urquhart to the public gallery; their presence shows the importance of the petition to the local community. I have invited the commi...
The Convener
Con
I am surprised that you cannot promise sunshine—I thought that Labour was promising sunshine for all.
Jackie Baillie
Lab
If it will bring you out to the A82, I will promise sunshine for you, convener.
The Convener
Con
Colleagues, I am looking at both the petitions and I think that we are now driven in a similar direction as to how we might take them forward. We are going t...
David Torrance
SNP
This is the third Parliament session during which I have been involved in discussions about the Rest and be Thankful. I say to Jackie Baillie that it was a s...
The Convener
Con
It was.
David Torrance
SNP
I chaired a meeting of the Public Petitions Committee there. This has been an on-going issue for the local community and all the measures that have been put...
Fergus Ewing
SNP
I support Mr Torrance’s suggestion. I was also struck by the petitioner’s most recent submission, of 12 November, which I hope the cabinet secretary will res...
The Convener
Con
I am grateful for that broadcast to the nation, Mr Ewing, and I commend you, as I always do, for delivering it with impeccable grammar from start to finish. ...
Fergus Ewing
SNP
I certainly concur.
The Convener
Con
Are we agreed? Members indicated agreement.
The Convener
Con
The Convener: That is what we will do. I hope that, by that time, we will have the orders that we have been promised and will be able to investigate the matt...