Two over our front pages since the Scottish Government broke is promise to complete the dualling of the A9 from Inverness-Perth by 2025.
All of 925 days ago The Inverness Courier launched its Dual the A9 Campaign after the Scottish Government admitted it would fail to finish the road by 2025.
Now, in the year the project was due to be completed, four of Scotland’s major parties have committed to matching Transport Scotland’s finishing date for the project of 2035 but before an even more pressing date.
The next Scottish Government will carry the bulk of the programme forward when it is formed after the 2026 election – and it is sure to involve a combination of the SNP, Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
The major party’s pledges to keep to the 2035 deadline:
• First Minister Humza Yousaf signs Inverness Courier’s A9 Pledge
• Scottish Conservatives sign Inverness Courier A9 pledge and vow to speed up dualling
The campaign started on February 8, 2023 with the first report on the then transport minister Jenny Gilruth’s announcement that 2025 was no longer “achievable”.
That news struck people across the Inverness newsroom personally because everyone knew the road, everyone knew that it was deadly, and to varying degrees everyone helped.
So when Ms Gilruth revealed that after almost 16 years in power the SNP would fail to complete a road on time and had no viable plan to do so, the anger in the region was palpable.
Locals fumed that the government had failed, broken its promise, that more people would die and there was a real sense of having been conned over many elections.
After all the SNP completed the Queensferry Crossing (2017); the Borders Railway (2015); and the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (2019) – so why not the A9?
Two days later our Friday frontpage featured a tombstone with the words: “RIP SNP Promise of Dualling the A9 by 2025” went viral.
Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation as First Minister in March proved to be a game-changer for both the dualling and the campaign.
We staged the biggest debate between the candidates in the north of Scotland during the SNP leadership contest which helped drive home the message.
All the candidates vowed to deliver a renewed dualling programme and Humza Yousaf won and proved he was determined to deliver the dualling.
We followed that up with the A9 Dualling Summit in July with MSP Fergus Ewing, campaigner Laura Hansler and new transport secretary Mairi McAllan.
If Ms McAllan was any doubt about tensions in the north, Highland Council Convener Bill Lobban disabused her of them: “The actual cost of this road is not in pounds, shillings, or pence – the actual cost in this road is the number of people who lose their lives, for no reason.”
The contributions of MSP Fergus Ewing and campaigner Laura Hansler to the dualling cause cannot be overestimated as through them both there emerged the Holyrood committee inquiry.
A timeline of events was revealed showing the government had known since 2018 it would not make the 2025 deadline.
Finally in December 2023, the Scottish Government confirmed that it had a new programme. We exclusively revealed the new deadline as 2035 and then met First Minister Yousaf in his Holyrood office where he was the first to sign our pledge.
He said: “I can give you that promise, that cast iron guarantee, that fully dualling the A9 between Perth and Inverness remains a top priority for me as the First Minister.”
After he departed office his successor John Swinney and Highland MSP Kate Forbes as Deputy First Minister both signed as well.
Mr Swinney said: “The government’s commitment is what matters and the government’s commitment to the programme has been set out to the parliament and that is our approach to the delivery of the project.”
Next came the Liberal Democrats who offered a UK-wide commitment as both Scottish and UK leaders Alex Cole-Hamilton and Sir Ed Davey signed up.
Mr Cole-Hamilton said: “This is so important, not just for the Highland economy but also for road safety – remember: this is one of the most lethal roads in the British Isles, it has a body count every single year and that body count lies squarely at the door of ministers who have failed to act and get that road dualled.”
And finally in the last two weeks the Scottish Conservatives leader Russell Findlay and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarward both put pen to paper in the Highlands.
Mr Findlay said: “I think privately they [the SNP] know that the 2035 claim is utterly fictional. What we’re proposing and what is perhaps consistent with some of what your campaign is calling for is a fast track, new legislation that would expedite this entire process.”
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