Dave Thompson MSP

Highlands and Islands MSP Dave Thompson has welcomed a Conservative MSP's call for dates to be set for the SNP's policy of delivering a much-needed upgrade of the A9 following decades of neglect under other political administrations.

Mr Thompson (SNP) did not expect that his support of a parliamentary motion raised by Mid-Scotland and Fife MSP Murdo Fraser, which calls for details of a timetable for the upgrade of the road to dual carriageway, would attract surprise from some quarters.

When he was contacted by a journalist to ask why he had chosen to support a motion raised by a Conservative MSP, he replied: "The SNP government have given a commitment to dual the A9 in the Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR) – the motion reiterates that.

“It would be useful if we can get a timetable for the STPR programme which will be starting in 2012.

Mr Thompson later added: "The first thing I look at when considering any motion is the motion itself, not which political party the member who drafted it belongs to.

"For this motion to be debated in the chamber it must attract support from a member of another political party so I have given my support to Mr Fraser so we can have a debate to look at the full circumstances of the decades of neglect the A9 has suffered.

"I note that no Labour or LibDem member has been bold enough to give their support to Mr Fraser's motion but perhaps that is not surprising given the failure of those parties to advance the badly-needed upgrade of this vital route during their tenure as Scottish Executive, when they were in charge of the country's transport network from 1999 to 2007."

On forming the Scottish Government in 2007, the SNP continued the programme of piecemeal improvements that had been set out by the Lib/Lab coalition under its previous powers before the new Government was able to include a full upgrade of the A9 to dual carriageway in the new STPR programme, which will run from 2012 to 2022.

Having a debate on the upgrade of the A9 in Parliament would also remind voters that the opposition parties united to outvote the minority SNP Government and force £500 million of the country's transport budget to be spent on Edinburgh's problematic trams scheme.

"This was an extremely cynical move to limit the ability of the SNP to decide where the country's limited pot of funding for major capital projects could be spent," Mr Thompson recalled. "One Tory member, David McLetchie, even admitted that the main reason he had decided to outvote the Scottish Government was to prevent investment in areas outside his constituency."

Notes:

Murdo Fraser's motion:

S3M-07532 Murdo Fraser (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): Dual the A9 Timetable— That the Parliament understands that the A9 trunk road has the highest fatality rate of any road in Scotland and that the majority of accidents occur on single carriageway stretches; sadly notes that 2010 had seen 11 deaths on the Perth to Inverness section by 1 December; acknowledges that the A9 between these points continually switches between single and dual carriageway, which, it considers, can cause driver confusion and lead to accidents; believes that upgrading the A9 between Perth and Inverness to dual carriageway in its entirety would reduce the accident and fatality rates and in addition would help ease congestion and bring an economic boost to Mid Scotland and Fife and the Highlands, and accordingly would welcome a full and detailed timetable for such improvements.

Supported by: Bill Aitken, Sir Jamie McGrigor, Nanette Milne, Margaret Mitchell, Jackson Carlaw, Elizabeth Smith, Dave Thompson

Lodged on Thursday, December 02

David McLetchie, quoted in the Edinburgh Evening News on Nov 2, 2007: "Had they cancelled the trams, they were never going to spend that money in Edinburgh. They were intending to spend the money on transport projects elsewhere in Scotland."