Mr Swinney and Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes provide assurances on road dualling
The Scottish Government is aiming to develop more sections of the A9 in the next 12 months than it has completed since 2007 – so is the First Minister confident that pace can be maintained and reach the 2035 deadline?
Speaking exclusively to Highland News & Media, owners of the Strathy, First Minister John Swinney said he is confident pace can be maintained and the 2035 dualling deadline met.
The assurance after he and Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes both signed sister title Inverness Courier’s Pledge to Dual the A9.
Former First Minister Humza Yousaf also signed The Pledge while he was in office, which was also part of the campaign to hold the Scottish Government to its promise.
Serious crashes have sadly continued to be a feature of the route with a wave of multi-vehicle incidents since the start of the year.
But despite the Finance Secretary having warned “we cannot afford all of our capital commitments” it is heartening that A9 dualling appears to remain on track as a part of the First Minister’s inaugural Programme for Government.
He told Holyrood: “We will progress the dualling of the A9 and construction is expected to start before the end of this year on the Tomatin to Moy stretch” with procurement also under way for the Tay Crossing to Ballinluig section.
There is also the expected procurement for Pitlochry to Killiecrankie in the spring with the contract award for Tay Crossing to Ballinluig in the summer.
Ms Forbes said: “I drive on the A9 almost every few days, and I am always concerned for the safety of family and friends on the road. That’s why I want to see the A9 finally dualled.
“I welcome the Scottish Government’s publication of a timetable and the progress on procurement for Tomatin to Moy. For the next generations of Highlanders, we must complete this work - as quickly as possible.”
Speaking at SNP headquarters near Holyrood, the First Minister was asked what assurances he can offer Highlanders that the party will not drop the ball this time around.
“Well, the government’s commitment is what matters,” he said. “And the government’s commitment to the programme has been set out to the parliament and that is our approach to the delivery of the project.
“We have obviously had some important landmarks – Moy to Tomatin is now in the last stages of procurement and we expect an announcement to be made on that very shortly.
“And we have commenced the procurement of the Tay Crossing to Ballinluig section, which will take of the order of about a year to complete the procurement. So on that timescale Highlanders can see there will be Tomatin to Moy then another one hot on the heels. Then there are various other stages after that.”
Mr Swinney said he has been a long-time supporter of dualling going back to when the SNP first entered government.
“If you go back to 2007 the government had to look carefully at how it could sustain broad support for its capital programme because it was operating as a minority government,” he said.
“Indeed, I was criticised in 2007 for wanting to divert money from the Edinburgh tram project to the A9 - and I did want to do that. That is what I wanted to do and parliament stopped me - I just remembered that.”
He added that as a minority government in its first term the SNP was limited in what it could achieve and was ‘largely’ delivering ‘the programme we inherited from our predecessors’.
The Queensferry Crossing, he said, also had to take priority because failing to deal with the old Forth Road Bridge would have caused ‘a very direct and damaging hit to the Scottish economy’.
