A9 campaigners 'not holding our breath' after Transport Secretary's open letter

Transport secretary Màiri McAllan has again stressed that Holyrood remains 'resolutely committed to dualling the A9 between Perth and Inverness' – but campaigners say they are not holding their breath.

In a letter to the A9 Dual Action Group's Laura Hansler, she repeated her thanks to have been given the opportunity at The Inverness Courier A9 Crisis Summit to set out the 'significant work' now being done by Transport Scotland 'to urgently progress both the new procurement of the contract to dual the section between Tomatin and Moy and also to set a new timetable for the completion of the remainder of the programme'.

Mrs Hansler said that her response remained 'pretty neutral, to be perfectly honest'.

She explained: "I agreed at the summit to meet with Miss McAllan, but right now it’s all just words.

"Until we actually have some tangible evidence that there’s a firm commitment to get on with the job at hand, and until I see heavy construction in place, I am not holding my breath."

There was clearly a long way to go and the methodology was not easy to fathom for the group, it appeared.

"The government are still trying to garner support by these fanfare announcements of small pockets of money, and spending on useless and expensive roads signs that tell you to 'drive on the left' when ironically these can only be viewed if you’re indeed driving on the left," Mrs Hansler said.

"Is that really the best we can do?"

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