Scottish Government First Minister John Swinney visits Inverness and assures Highland residents of ‘commitment’ to dualling of A9 trunk road
First Minister John Swinney has used a visit to Inverness to reconfirm his government’s “commitment to deliver the dualling of the A9”.
The SNP leader made the remarks on Sunday afternoon during a whistle-stop visit to the north Highlands and Moray on the General Election campaign trail.
A busy day saw Mr Swinney visit Keith, Inverness, Loch Broom and Ullapool as he met with SNP election candidates - including incumbent Inverness MP Drew Hendry - party supporters and members of the public. He also stopped off for a quick tour of the cathedral in Inverness.
Speaking to the Inverness Courier during his stop in the Highland capital, he said that he expected to award the contract for the dualling of the Moy to Tomatin section of the A9 “shortly” and repeated recent assurances that the government is committed to upgrading the trunk road and has “a programme which I believe enables us to do so”.
He said: “The government has taken forward the A9 dualling project I think in a timeous fashion given that we had a whole range of capital projects that had to be delivered, and which were committed to in some respects long before we even came in to office.
“Since we came to office obviously we've taken on significant improvements on the A9. We have also gone to the dualled sections - with Luncarty to Pass of Birnam being completed, and Kincraig-Dalraddy being completed - and [we’re] looking forward very much to the awarding of the contract on Moy-Tomatin.”
He added that it was “unfortunate” that the original bidding process had only attracted one bidder, and meant the contract could not be concluded at that time but, referring to the renewed bidding process for the project, he stressed: “We'll get the contract award of Moy-Tomatin shortly and we've already started the procurement of the Tay Crossing to Ballinluig.
“So it's all taking us close and I very much welcome the commitment of the Inverness Courier to this issue. I welcome the campaign that has been undertaken by the Inverness Courier and I assure the people of the Highlands of the government's commitment to deliver the dualling of the A9 and we have a programme which I believe enables us to do so.”
During his visit Mr Swinney also accused Douglas Ross of ‘taking Highland constituents for granted” after the Scottish Conservative leader confirmed he will stand down as a list MSP for the Highlands if he wins the vote to represent the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East constituency in Westminster on July 4.
He said: “Douglas Ross is just picking and choosing where he fancies being in parliament - and it entirely takes the electorate for granted.”
You can read more on that story here.
