Sir, – Nicola Sturgeon admits the “A9 dualling could slip” (Courier, February 11). Well, there is a surprise.
Her party came to power in 2007 promising to dual the whole of the A9, along with a whole shopping list of other promises which have never seen the light of day.
Nothing much happened in the first parliament.
A short six-mile section on Speyside was completed in the second and the planning process for the Luncarty to Birnam Pass section started. While that is now shaping up well, it is not actually complete.
The section around Birnam is widely believed to be physically impossible, and appears to have been omitted.
The next section to the north has huge controversies surrounding it due to the Battle of Killiecrankie historic site, and there is no word of a timeline.
Beyond that, there is little evidence of any planning preparations of any sort for the road to the north of there.
Given the Luncarty to Birnam section alone has taken 10 years to deliver, and that this is about 10% of the total 80 miles to be upgraded, and that the planning process for the rest has not even begun, then I think we can safely say that the A9 was never going to get delivered by 2025, or no.
It appears that the Scottish Government will probably finish the Luncarty to Birnam stretch, and call it a day at that, enough to tick a box and show willing, but not enough to make that much of a difference.
And the cost? The initial cost was estimated at £500 million, or so Pete Wishart told us at the time. It now appears to be £6 billion. For that amount of money, you could probably upgrade the railway line and every station in every small town along the way.
Let us stop the pretence of dualling the A9, and put in some proper infrastructure for the 21st Century and beyond. Tinkering here and there isn’t really going to make much difference.
Victor Clements.
Mamie’s Cottage,
Aberfeldy.
No sense in billions for A9 dualling
Sir, – The Scottish Government has declared a climate emergency, and has committed to a target of reducing car kilometres by 20% by the year 2030.
Perhaps they can then explain how spending billions on extra A9 lanes will help deliver this target?
In a year of many necessary government U-turns, such as face masks or exam results, the cancellation of any further road building contracts is now essential.
Iain MacDonald.
Grove Road,
Broughty Ferry.
Buy Scottish to help the seafood sector
Sir, – In his customary cogent column, Alex Bell raises serious questions about why we Scots do not eat more of our own seafood.
I have been puzzled for years as to why I can only seem to buy Honduran prawns in our supermarkets when our produce is often lauded as the best in the world.
I hope he is right that by consuming more lobster, scallops and prawns we can help the seafood industry escape its current Brexit limbo and create a home market for producers. Seems a “ no brainer, “ as some would say.
Craig Millar.
Claypotts Road,
Broughty Ferry.
End the damaging anti-vaccine rhetoric
Sir, – I watched the Scottish Government Covid-19 committee meeting while Danny Boyle of BEMIS Scotland articulated how Covid was affecting ethnic minorities living within Scotland.
Many have their own community folklore which can make them vaccine hesitant.
Some sub-Saharan Africans are being fed the lies that this vaccination programme is an experiment by big pharma.
This is no experiment, this is real. The vaccine has been tested as every other vaccine is tested.
One surprising statistic was that people from the Asian sub-continent were, if overweight and contracting Covid-19, twice as likely to die.
They were also more likely to contract Covid as, generally, they lived in larger multi-generational family groups.
These groups that will benefit twice as much from the vaccine, do not need to have the additional hurdle of anti-vax messages.
Alistair Ballantyne.
Birkhill,
Angus.
