Mearns Conservative Cllr George Carr has expressed his exasperation with the process surrounding the campaign for a new grade separated junction at Laurencekirk.
Cllr Carr said “this campaign for a junction has been going on and on now for several years since Alex Johnstone MSP first raised it in the Scottish Parliament in 2004.”
“We have had petition after petition , committee after committee look at this and Transport Ministers coming – and going! They wring their hands and pass the buck onto Transport Scotland as the traffic flows increase and the catalogue of incidents, bumps and shunts continues to get worse.
We have established that it is not up to Councils or developers or deliver strategic infrastructure, but sits squarely with Scottish Government.”
“There comes a time when this sorry “kicking the can down the road” must end.
Politics is all about being in power and with that comes the opportunity to use that power to deliver. It requires lobbying your colleagues if you are in the enviable position of Government, and being the proverbial pain, until they finally see sense and say YES, if for no other reason than a quiet life!
I for one don’t want to hear about another Scottish Government Committee considering this junction. We have been there, done that and have all the T shirts to prove it, and we also need to remember that Transport Scotland are not the Scottish Government.!
This now needs to be a Political priority, a budget line allocated for Laurencekirk Junction, and then let’s see it delivered. We have complete cross Party support for this project.”
Alex Johnstone MSP agreed and added “ I have real concerns that we keep referring this matter to Transport Scotland and hiding behind their assumptions and excuses not to accept the importance of this junction layout. Anyone who uses that crossing on a day to day basis does not need to conduct another survey and can see quite clearly that a dangerous problem exists. If we can provide several new junctions between Perth and Dundee, then Laurenckirk is well up there in terms of priority.
I still say there is an realistic opportunity to tag this project onto the AWPR contract. All we need now is the political will of Government to deliver.”