FERGUS EWING: 'Once trust goes – elections are lost. And deservedly so'

I have never known a reaction like it in the Highlands.

The reaction to the news that the Scottish Government has cancelled the contract for dualling the A9 section from Tomatin to Moy has been met with anger on a level I have not seen before.

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Last year saw 13 people lose their lives on the road, all but one of them on single-carriageway sections of it.

Each one is a tragedy leaving families devastated. I knew one of the people who lost her life. Each death touches us all.

The stark truth is that fatalities are three times more likely on single than dual carriageway roads. The longer our pledge remains unfulfilled, the sad truth is that more lives will be lost.

The promise made by my party and by me at every election since 2011 was to dual the entire A9 from Perth to Inverness by 2025.

Twelve years later, we have seen only two sections – or 11 miles – dualled.

What added to the anger was the lame excuses offered – that somehow the problems arose because of Brexit, Covid and the Ukraine war. What balderdash.

However, as the saying goes: “Don’t get mad – get even.”

The focus for me now is to continue to press the Scottish Government and their transport agency to raise their game and publish the revised timetable sooner than the promised autumn date. Why not now?

So I will be devoting considerable time and effort to that cause and trying to make sure that when the section is re-tendered Transport Scotland do not make the same mistakes.

I believe they know that the key problem is the lack of appetite among industry to go to tender on roads contracts in Scotland. That is because all the risks are passed to the contractors and in the past they have been stung.

I shall be having discussions with leading figures in the sector in order to ensure that Transport Scotland listen and respond and change their terms and conditions, at least to that level of risk sharing applicable in England for roads contracts there.

Unless the party I have served for most of my life delivers a credible revised plan for the swift completion of the road – as swiftly as it can be done in practice – I fear that we will lose the trust and confidence of the public, whose patience in the Highlands has already been remarkable.

Once trust goes – elections are lost. And deservedly so.

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