DOUGLAS ROSS: ‘Businesses have suffered through no Fault of their own’
We recently had the long-awaited and welcome news that works at Union Bridge in Keith are finally under way, and are due to be completed in a few months time.
As I say, this is welcome news, but the fact that works only started in March when road restrictions have been in place since last summer is shocking and unbelievable on such an important and busy road like the A96.
The disruption to local people and businesses has been clear for all to see and I have raised this in the Scottish Parliament on numerous occasions because I don’t believe Transport Scotland or the Scottish Government have treated these concerns as seriously as they should have.
Sign up to receive our free email newsletters
It has been clear to me that many businesses have struggled, with some losing tens of thousands of pounds throughout the time the A96 has been restricted to one lane through the town.
I’m told that because these works are on the trunk road, no compensation can be paid, but I find that completely wrong.
These businesses have suffered through no fault of their own and no-one could have imagined when the issue was first identified last summer that this saga would have dragged on for so long.
I will continue to raise this issue with Ministers as I really feel Keith and the businesses of the town have been badly let down.
Sticking with roads, it’s a few weeks since the latest consultation on the A96 closed and we have heard nothing from the Scottish Government about it. I tried to get some questions raised in Parliament about it, but they were never selected until this week.
As a result we found that over 1400 responses were received, which represents a massive uptake in the final couple of weeks of the consultation as MSPs were told by the Transport Secretary in early February there had only been 500 responses.
It’s welcome that so many people shared their views, but there is also clearly fatigue out there at being asked to answer another consultation when, if the SNP had just got on and dualled the road as promised, we should have been five years away from the completion of this much-needed project.
Instead, 14 years on from the commitment made by the Nationalists in 2011, not a single mile of the road has been upgraded to dual carriageway in that time.
To end on some good news, it was very encouraging to see the UK government row back on their plans to define English Malt Whisky in a way that seriously threatened our iconic Single Malt Scotch whisky.
There was understandable and widespread concern throughout the industry about what this would mean for the reputation and recognition of the Scotch Single Malt brand that has been built up for years and something we are renowned for around the globe.
Oscar Wilde said “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” and that certainly rang true with this proposal.
I can understand why other brands would want the national and international success of Scotch Whisky, but it is a reputation the industry cherish and we should support them to maintain it. That’s something I hope we can all raise a glass to!
