LETTERS: Let's be fair on SNP's A9 promises and fabulous feedback from Cromarty garden event
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Let’s be fair on talk of SNP’s A9 promises
No-one is going to disagree with Nicky Marr that the A9 from Perth to Inverness needs upgrading.
However, she attacks the SNP for breaking its promise to dual the A9 by 2025, and suggests that people north of Perth have been treated as second class because the Scottish Government has invested in the Queensferry Crossing and in Edinburgh trams.
This is hardly fair. A second bridge over the Forth was essential once it became clear the original bridge could no longer safely accommodate traffic flows it had not been designed to carry. And when they came to power in 2007 as a minority administration, the SNP opposed investment in the Edinburgh trams, only to be outvoted by the unionist parties.
The A9 is not the only trunk road outwith the central belt that suffers fatalities and is desperate for investment – the A96 from Aberdeen to Inverness, and the A75 from Dumfries to Stranraer are other examples, as is the A1 from Dunbar to Berwick. The reality is that there are insufficient resources to allow all of these much-needed road improvement schemes to progress at the one time.
Yes, the upgrading of the A9 has been slower than the target that had been set, as happens with many projects. The important thing is that the SNP has said the dualling of the road to Inverness remains a priority to which it is committed, and I have every confidence that politicians such as Humza Yousaf and Kate Forbes will honour this.
Every month I drive the A9 north to Easter Ross. Can I say that I feel a lot safer driving the road today than I did a decade ago, before there were dualled sections and average speed cameras installed?
D. B. Williamson
Portmahomack
Easter Ross
Growing interest
I think that the Open Gardens event really drags people from a wide area to Cromarty for the whole weekend. Many visitors were returning visitors looking to see what changes gardeners have made from their last visits.
I found it very humbling with the positive comments visitors made for all households with gardens that were open. All gardens are unique and have something different, some formal, some like ours maintained with pollinators the focus.
One comment I have heard regularly is all gardens have many bees and other pollinators. Another comment was all the gardens are havens of tranquillity in a very stressful world. Additionally, I think the shops did well and the Fishertown Inn was mobbed again with very good positive comments. The visitors I spoke to will be back.
The organisers need a big thank you for making this weekend very special.
Craig and Dor Fraser
Cromarty
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