Inverness A9 dualling: Scottish Greens defend roads policy; plus could Inverness Town House be more open?
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Alternatives to dualling could be better Scottish Greens absolutely take transport safety extremely seriously which is why it's critical to look at all the evidence, not just cherry pick. When we review success stories in similar economies with similar challenges to ours, countries with better transport systems (including roads) have prioritised rail and active travel investments.
Which is in stark contrast to long term investment, where we see rail has been given a fraction of the funding compared with roads. While we recognise road travel is essential for transporting goods for businesses and a necessity for many who live remotely in the Highlands, the fact is rail travel is safer and a boon to every economy. Meanwhile with more and more people turning to active travelling in the UK we must be ready to invest in what is clearly becoming the people's choice, to support their wellbeing (especially with active travel being a fraction of traditional travel costs).
That is why The Green's continue to campaign for a 10 per cent spend on active travel and rail travel. A dualled road is not necessarily safer[1]. I live just off the part of the A9 which is already dualled and I still see horrible accidents.
Right now it's basically a motorway with no hard shoulder. We know that using hard shoulders to increase motorway capacity has been proved to be extremely unsafe and a subject of campaigns across the UK. Yes, you will not have head-on collisions, but collisions at much lower speeds than 100mph are extremely serious and often fatal and dualling increases those speeds.
On roads through towns and near schools the 20mph limits are statistically much safer than 30mph limits and I'm proud that, thanks to the Scottish Greens, the Highlands has now adopted these for most settlements resulting in significant improvements to safety for motorists, and active travellers alike. In terms of further safety measures on the A9 and A96, with limited money and construction costs rising especially with oil based tarmac, we'd favour targeted improvements on key dark spots like junctions and by-passes including Nairn in the short term, rather than empty promises. I'd like to see a significant improvement to markings on the stretch of A9 where the other dualled part disappears from view and people cannot remember whether they are on a dualled stretch or not.
As our Co-Leader, Gillian MacKay highlighted during her recent visit, putting freight on rail gets slow lorries off roads and these are often a cause of unsafe overtaking.
In terms of Journey times, the average journey time on the A96 will be about 10 minutes less with full A96 dualling and in the 3-5 years of roadworks you will lose far more than that. We want to see an expansion in bus use and we're pleased that the Scottish Greens secured free buses for under 22s which means many young people don't have to learn to drive so early, can be independent and save money at a costly time in their lives. We want to see free buses expanded to all, which will substantially cut vehicle numbers improving safety for all and cutting the amount of tax revenue to be spent on costly road maintenance.
On April 7 I represented the Scottish Greens at the Association of Scottish Self Caterers Hustings at Glen Mhor Hotel, Inverness. I made the point that most visitors would prefer to travel by rail and bus if this was available and affordable so that they can admire the fantastic views we have and they then wouldn't have the stress and the risk to others of trying to remember which side of the road to drive on.
Spending more on rail and active travel would improve safety faster, making the Highlands a better place to live, more attractive to visit, and the investment would have a much greater return for communities than costly road expansions and this has been clearly documented in the research?. Anne Thomas
Scottish Greens Highlands and Islands Regional List Candidate North Kessock Catch up with our columnists[2]
'SNP may try to avoid scrutiny over A9 dualling'[3] Colin Marr omits to say how much he wants his taxes to rise to pay for the over ?4bn price of dualling the A9 from Inverness to Perth (Greens dualling stance slammed, Courier, 10/4/26). There are safety improvements that should be made at known spots and this could be done within a couple of years and relatively cheaply.
Dualling the whole route will take decades, cost billions and distract us from the priority safety work.
If the aim is speeding overall access to Inverness, far more effective would be addressing the traffic jam called Fort William on the A82. If the chief executive of Inverness Chamber of Commerce has £4 or ?5 billion to give away, I can think of far better things he could spend it on: hospitals, schools and houses for a start. Chris Ballance
Green councillor, Aird and Loch Ness
Open town house to visitors
When walking along the High Street one bright morning early this week I noticed a group of tourists taking photographs outside the town house. Knowing that the building is currently little used, I wondered what opportunity there was for tourists to see inside it. There are prominent no entry signs in six languages.
At the bottom of the main sign it states: "Please contact Inverness Museum for tour info." I contacted the museum and was advised that there have been no tours for several years; museum staff were not aware that a sign still existed. It is a beautiful building - both inside and outside - and it has an impressive history. This includes, on September 7, 1921, the first British government cabinet meeting held outside London where the Inverness Formula was developed which created the basis of the discussions at the conference where the Anglo-Irish Treaty creating the Irish Free State was agreed.
Over the years, it has also been the scene of many civic occasions including Royal visits and the granting of the Freedom of the Burgh of Inverness to notable people.
It ought to be relatively easy to prepare some exhibitions and, with appropriate promotion, offer regular guided tours of the building for a modest charge. Doing so would give visitors another city centre attraction to explore alongside the newly refurbished Inverness Castle. George Rennie
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References
- ^ A dualled road is not necessarily safer (www.inverness-courier.co.uk)
- ^ Catch up with our columnists (www.inverness-courier.co.uk)
- ^ 'SNP may try to avoid scrutiny over A9 dualling' (www.inverness-courier.co.uk)
- ^ here (www.inverness-courier.co.uk)