Building the Nairn bypass is a 'matter of honour' says Fergus Ewing MSP
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CONSTRUCTION of the Nairn bypass is a “matter of honour” and will be delivered as promised, a local MSP has vowed.
Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, made the promise during a visit to Nairn recently. His comments came after some political rivals speculated that the SNP’s partnership with the Green Party at Holyrood might cast doubt over the long-awaited work.
But Mr Ewing said he was sure the Scottish Government would continue to take forward its plans to dual the A96 from Inverness to Auldearn including the long-mooted bypass.
He said: “It is a matter of honour for me - we have promised this for the last seven elections – so we must deliver.
“The price tag will be enormous but every other part of the country has seen projects, major projects, delivered – the trams, the major and hugely costly motorway improvements in the west, the marvellous Queensferry Crossing, the Aberdeen peripheral route and the Edinburgh bypass.
“It is now the Highlands’ turn to get some investment.”
Mr Ewing also stressed that any agreement between the Green Party and the Scottish Government about future road building projects does not include the Inverness to Auldearn section of the road.
“Unlike any of the rest of the A96, this stretch of road has gone through the whole statutory process,” he said.
“It has got permission following route selection and it is very far on in the overall process – a strict and already highly regulated legal statutory process and has already passed environmental tests.
“So the work on this campaign and indeed the completion of the dualling of the A9 from Dunblane to Inverness are the single most important constituency work I have and am doing alongside Drew Hendry, MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey.”
