NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Use 18 December 2009 SNP REFUSE TO SET OUT A9 DUALLING INVESTMENT The SNP Government has been urged to set out all of its capital projects so that road users of the A9 will know whether or not the road will be upgraded to dual carriageway status in its entirety between Perth and Inverness. In a parliamentary question during Ministers’ Question Time, Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser asked the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth John Swinney whether the SNP Government will accept the recommendation in the Finance Committee's "Report on scrutiny of the Draft Budget 2010-11", which asked the Scottish Government to provide "an indicative profile of all capital projects and their expected annual costs over the next 10 years". Murdo asked the Cabinet Secretary if the A9 will appear on the list of all capital projects. In response, the Cabinet Secretary said: “I will consider all the recommendations. I would not want to single out one recommendation for particular attention at this time. The Finance Committee did us a service by demonstrating that there will be a tightly constrained capital budget for a number of years after 2010-11, as the Government has also made clear. “Mr Fraser will be aware that the A9 is in a Government transport infrastructure programme, in the strategic transport projects review. The Government has made it clear that at each spending review we will set out the prioritisation of projects that can be taken forward in that context.” Commenting afterwards, Murdo said: “It is disappointing that the SNP Government will not provide information on whether or not the A9 is one of its capital projects for investment over the next ten years. “I believe that the A9 is completely inadequate to handle the volume of traffic that flows on the road and is holding back the economic development of the Highlands and Perthshire. The A9 is a danger road, has a terrible fatality rate and many drivers hate using the road. The dualling of the A9 is in the national interest and the sooner it is done the better. “It is extremely frustrating and disappointing that the SNP Government will not commit a timetable to dualling the A9 in its entirety between Perth and Inverness. Road users of the A9 want to know what steps are being taken to improve the road as they are paying record sums in taxation yet are seeing little improvement to the transport network. “I urge all users of the A9 to put pressure on the SNP Government to dual the A9 and sign my online petition for dualling of the A9 at www.dualtheA9.com.” ENDS   back to top of page