First Minister John Swinney meets road safety campaigners to discuss A75 and A77 improvements

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First Minister John Swinney met with Dumfries and Galloway road safety campaigners on Monday as part of discussions o how to improve safety on stretches of the A75 and A77..

Galloway and West Dumfries MSP Finlay Carson invited him to Crocketford to discuss the need to improve both routes.

Ferry and port operators were in attendance along with business leaders, road safety campaigners and vice chair of the council’s economy and infrastructure committee, Councillor Jackie McCamon.

The Scottish Government has recently appointed technical advisors to look into rerouting the A75 around Crocketford and Springholm, although any construction work remains some time away.

Afterwards, Mr Swinney said: “The Scottish Government understands the strategic importance of both the A75 and A77 to Scotland’s economy and we value the critical link they provide to the wider markets in the rest of the UK and Europe by connecting the ports at Cairnryan to the wider trunk road network.

“Discussing the A75 with local partners has been very productive and Transport Scotland will continue to liaise with them as design and assessment work is taken forward. This is a complex piece of work which will require consideration of road safety, engineering, environmental, traffic and economic factors in order to identify a preferred option for the improvements.

“We are committed to improving safety, resilience and reliability on the A75 for everyone who uses this key trunk road, including the freight operators. Springholm and Crocketford are the only two settlements on the busy route which have not yet been bypassed and I am pleased to be taking this design work forward to improve the lives of people living, visiting and working in the villages.”

The need to upgrade the A75 was identified in the Scottish Government’s second Strategic Transport Projects Review and the UK Government’s Union Connectivity Review, with Westminster providing £5 million for a feasibility study into a bypass.

Mr Carson said: “Encouragingly we are moving in the right direction but I believe it will probably be a couple of years before the assessment was complete and some time after that before work would begin.

“But I remain optimistic progress will be made on the bypasses. It is a signal that it is going to happen and that is far more than we have had in the past.”

The possibility of average speed cameras being installed in a bid to improve safety was also discussed.

Mr Carson added: “This is something I have been calling for over many years now and I take some heart that the First Minister has agreed to look at as a matter of urgency towards improving the road’s poor safety record.

“Overall I believe it was a productive and rewarding meeting while allowing the First Minister to come up to speed with the urgent need for improvements.

“He heard first hand of the many problems including the knock on effect of road closures and the use of totally unacceptable B roads as alternatives.”

South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth said people want “action, not just warm words” from the First Minister.

He said: “The simple fact is the only funding that has been committed to the A75 is the £5m from the UK Government, even though roads are an entirely a devolved matter.

“The funding from the UK Government is paying for assessment and design work for by-passes for Crocketford and Springholm but it’s time for the Scottish Government to stop ducking their responsibilities, and put their money where their mouth is by committing to funding the building of the by-passes when that design work is completed.”

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