By Liz Fowler

THE PETITION calling for a flyover at the notorious A90 junction at Laurencekirk with the A937 Montrose road closed yesterday with 8128 signatures.

Organiser Jill Campbell would like to hand it over on site to Scottish Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson but so far he has failed to reply to the call to him to come and witness the dangers for himself.

She said, “This junction is used by motorists not just in the Mearns but through the whole of north Angus.

“We want the minister to come and see how incapable it is of coping with the heavy traffic flow and to see how fast vehicles are coming through.

“The 50mph speed limit is not working and everybody knows that.

“But if the minister won’t come to us, then we will have to go to him and the petition will be delivered to the Scottish Parliament as soon as that can be arranged.”

Meanwhile Angus MSP Andrew Welsh has received a response from Transport Scotland chief executive Malcolm Reed in response to his representations on behalf of constituents in Hillside.

Concern was expressed to Mr Welsh about safety at the junction, with claims the speed limit and speed cameras were ineffective.

In his reply Mr Reed says that “from January 2001 until September 2005, there had been three fatal, three serious and four slight reported injury accidents.”

Following the introduction of the safety measures, he says there have only been two slight injury accidents reported.

He assures Mr Welsh that the “safety of this junction continues to be monitored to assess whether the current measures are leading to an improvement in safety and following a meeting with the police and BEAR Scotland it was decided to install improved vehicle activated signs both north and southbound at a reduced height and to arrange for contractors to ensure the camera equipment was functioning properly.”

He also confirms that as “the A90 forms an important part of the Aberdeen to Dundee transport corridor, safety issues at Laurencekirk are being considered in the context of the Strategic Transport Projects Review, due to report later this year.”

While the junction was not in his constituency, it was used on a daily basis by many of his constituents, said Mr Welsh. He welcomed action taken by Transport Scotland and hoped that following the report of the STPR further action would be taken to alleviate the dangers.

However, campaigners for the flyover claim official accident figures are distorting the truth.

“We know from speaking to police officers they can only record accidents where they attend,” said Jill. “What about accidents where there has been no injury but could have resulted in much worse, and with the amount of speeding there is at this junction, there is huge potential risk and the police officers I have spoken to would seem to agree.

“What we want is a list of speeding offences reported since the 50mph limit was introduced. I have asked for this already from Grampian Police without any success, but recently applied again under the Freedom of Information Act.”