Fergus Ewing has addressed the multiple causes why the SNP failed to finish the A9 dualling this year saying that under Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership it was never a “priority” adding: “I’m not sure that her heart was ever in the A9 project”.
The Inverness and Nairn MSP was speaking to BBC Radio Scotland when he also highlighted the indecision around how the dualling was to be funded – something, he said, remains an ongoing problem.
Speaking ahead of the Scottish Parliament’s first ever debate on the A9 dualling in the year that, according to the original promise made by the SNP, should have been the finished.
Asked about the cause of the delays, he said: “There was also, I think, particularly from Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership, just a failure to press this as a priority.
“I’m not really sure, to be quite candid with you, to be quite honest, and this is not personal – I’m not sure that her heart was ever in the A9 project.
“The only time she ever mentioned it was to be an electric superhighway. All people want is a dual carriageway that is safer”.
That includes the Nairn bypass, another scheme in which the MSP has been highly vocal critic of the SNP government’s performance.
He said: “I will be arguing that if they switch from doing it bit by bit to combining the Nairn bypass with the A9, if they change orthodox procurement to a framework, which transport Scotland already use for road maintenance – then they can cut the time and also cut the costs.
“At the moment, they’re doing it bit by bit, with eight further sections to be procured with the possibility that like the Tomatin to Moy section the procurement stage takes about five years instead of one”.
Mr Ewing said “dithering” over finance delayed the project and that the government – 18 years on from promising to dual the road – still has not come to a final decision on how to finance it.
He said: “It is really about time that the Scottish government seem to inject a little bit more enthusiasm for the A9 project than they have now and a bit more humility for the feelings thus far.
“Well, the [petitions] committee looked at that [cause of delays] and there were many factors. One of them was that from about 2014 onwards there was a period of about five or six years of dithering when they couldn’t quite decide by what method to finance it – whether public or private money and if private what method of private finance.
“Now they’ve decided to have a further review at the end of this year about what method of finance will be used for the sections north of Drumochter – so even now they haven’t decided how to even fund the project”.