Controversial Nairn traffic lights to be activated

NAIRN will have one of the most heavily traffic-lighted stretches of trunk road in Scotland when new signals are switched on this weekend.

Five additional sets will bring the total in a 1.6-mile section of the A96 to nine.

There are only 10 other sets of lights between Inverness and Aberdeen, a distance of 106 miles.

Angry town residents fear the lights will cause even more delays in a town already busy with traffic.

The requirement for traffic lights formed part of Scottish Government approval for the new Sainsbury’s ?store, under construction at ? Balmakeith, on the eastern edge of the town.

The lights will, it is argued, allow local traffic safe access to the A96, improve pedestrian crossing and allow for the anticipated increased in traffic the supermarket will bring when it opens on 3rd August.

Community councils in Nairn have complained to Transport Scotland about the matter and raised it with Inverness and Nairn MSP Fergus Ewing.

There will be a two-week monitoring of the lights to allow them to be synchronised before Sainsbury’s opens.

Community councils will discuss further action when it has assessed the impact caused once the next school term starts in mid-August.

Residents are anxious about motorists using Altonburn Road and other narrow roads as rat-runs to avoid traffic lights and roadworks.

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