Road campaigners call on FM hopefuls to prioritise forgotten A77 & A75
As FM voting opens for SNP members, the A77 & A75 action groups are calling on fair investment to be made a number one priority.
Scotland’s First Minister candidates are being urged to prioritise southwest roads and give them ‘fair investment’ should they be successful in replacing Nicola Sturgeon.
Activists campaigning for better investment in the A77 and A75 roads in Ayrshire, and Dumfries and Galloway are saying that whoever becomes Scotland’s next political leader mustn’t forget about the roads.
Humza Yousaf, Kate Forbes, and Ash Regan are all battling it out to replace Scotland’s longest serving First Minister with party members starting to vote today.
Members of the A77 and A75 action groups previously told Greatest Hits Radio that the southwest roads in Scotland had only received 0.04% of the £10.5 Billion that had been invested into the rest of the country the last couple of years.
Calls for improvements on the trunk roads have been backed by politicians including Conservative Finlay Carson MSP, Labour's Colin Smyth MSP and the Scottish Secretary Alister Jack MP.
Chair of the A77 campaign team Willie Scobie says Humza could be the man to give the roads their deserved treatment, considering his time as Transport Minister, but he’ll still need to improve on his record.
"All we are asking for is fair investment"
Mr Scobie is telling Greatest Hits Radio it’s time for the area to stop being under served and disregarded by politicians and hopes they can provide for the vital roads that connects Scotland and North England with Northern Ireland.
He said: “I would hope that this may put Humza in good stead to now deliver. He didn’t deliver as transport minister, but he will now have that opportunity if he becomes First Minister.
“There was a landslide just one mile north of Cairnryan when he was Transport Minister. That was going to take 20 years to do under revenue funding, so Humza within his 100 days of consultation did come back and he rectified the situation to his credit.
“Cairnryan is the only port in the UK’s Irish crossings that is not served by a dual carriage way or a motorway.
“I noticed Ash Regan said she would look at the A77 and A75 as she was going to with the A9 and A96.
“All we are asking is fairness. A fair distribution of capital investment.”