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A9 can't wait - nor can trunk link route - for The Inverness Courier
THE spate of horrific accidents in the last few weeks has highlighted once again the dangers of driving on the A9.
It is right to highlight the need, as the police have done, for drivers to be aware of the dangers and to drive accordingly. This is especially true in the summer months when the roads are busier, and many vehicles on the road are driven by visitors. Drivers driving too fast, or too slow, or too tired, or paying too little attention all cause real frustration or worse.
But there is equally no doubt that upgrading the road can make it safer. Evidence published last week, based on research by local doctors, showed dramatic reductions in the number of accidents on the A77 in the Central Belt once it was upgraded from single carriageway to dual carriageway status.
Highland politicians of all parties have long campaigned for improvements — we have to unite to win the battle for resources in Edinburgh. No doubt in response to this campaigning, the first minister last week again made a general commitment to upgrading the A9 — missing an opportunity to spell out more detailed plans.
There is a package of improvements on the way, agreed two years ago by the previous Scottish Government, which will make a difference. We have to redouble our efforts to persuade government to turn these words into actions and invest to upgrade the A9, on safety grounds.
But the high profile, quite rightly, of the A9 in recent weeks should not allow ministers to forget about other important transport projects for the Highlands. In particular, the Inverness trunk link route is absolutely essential to the future of the Highland Capital. It would ease congestion, open up more of the city to the south, and allow the development of the new university campus that is essential to our Inverness's future.
The huge response — for which I am very grateful indeed — to the local Liberal Democrats "speed up the bypass" campaign shows how much this link matters to people here. The TLR is one of several transport projects — the others being the dualling of the A96 to the airport and the extension of the airport itself — where funding momentum has slipped since the new government came into office. We can't afford any more delays.
I hope that the local campaigning effort on both the TLR and the A9, involving all parties and none, will be rewarded. It has, though, been reported that funds allocated through the strategic transport review will not be available until 2012. The TLR project, in particular, has been long in the preparation already, and should not subject to additional arbitrary delays from Edinburgh.
RUSSELL JOHNSTON
Russell Johnston was a massive presence in Highland, European, and Liberal politics for nearly half a century. With his untimely passing, in Paris — the city that he loved, — we have lost one of the great figures in Highland politics of the last half-century.
Russell was elected MP for Inverness in 1964, and held the seat for 33 years until his retirement in 1997. He made an immediate impact. His ideas and initiative led to the establishment of the Highlands and Islands development board that did so much to improve the economic prospects of the region that he loved. Every week I meet people locally whom Russell helped and remember him fondly.
Russell was an instinctive liberal — he wrote the book for others to know how to be a liberal. A man who lived and embodied the philosophy he once summarised as "untidy kindness". He was also the finest orator in the Scottish liberal tradition of his or any subsequent generation. His leaders speeches to the Scottish Liberal Party conference were legendary.
His dry wit was never far from the surface. His description of Conservatism as "a collection of prejudices moderated by remorse" is apposite today. His response to Clare Short's question in the Commons as to why he consistently referred to the Loch Ness monster as female that "it was often seen but never heard" caused mirth on all sides.
Russell was a lifelong European. He rose to be President of the Council of Europe parliamentary assembly. His work in the countries of Eastern Europe after the Berlin Wall came down has earned him genuine gratitude and the award of the Grand Cross from Romania, San Marino and Austria as well as the Order of Merit in Albania and Hungary.
Russell Johnston was a great Highlander, a great European and, most of all, a great Liberal. Russell has been a great inspiration to me, and an example of how to effectively represent the Highlands at Westminster. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him.
Posted on: 12/08/2008
