Elgin Bypass
The final item of business is a members' business debate on motion S2M-4632, in the name of Maureen Macmillan, on the Elgin bypass. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament notes the continued strong public support for an Elgin bypass; believes that a bypass is necessary to relieve the increasing problem of congestion in and around Elgin; welcomes the Moray 2020 strategy which recognises that, in order to enhance the area to attract inward investment, government dispersals and growing businesses, local transport links need to be transformed, and therefore believes that both Moray Council and the Scottish Executive should give a commitment to re-examine the case for an Elgin bypass.
I thank the minister for being here tonight after such an arduous afternoon and those members who have stayed behind. I know that Richard Baker has to leave quite soon, because he has a train to catch and some constituency engagements. I am glad to see that Peter Peacock is here, although he cannot take part in the debate, because he is a minister.
It is almost three years to the day since the late Margaret Ewing led a debate on the need for the Elgin bypass and was promised congestion-relieving measures and better pedestrian protection. From his own recent visit to Elgin, the minister can judge how ineffective those measures have been. The campaign for a bypass continues, and the local newspaper The Northern Scot and Moray & Nairn Express and Elgin councillors, particularly the Labour members led by Sandy Keith, have been at its forefront.
Elgin is bisected by the A96 trunk road, which links Aberdeen and Inverness. That link is becoming increasingly important, with the development and diversification of the energy industry. The road is notorious for the obstacles that are placed in the way of good journey times and for the levels of driver stress that it causes. It is more like a country road at times, with its tractors and combine harvesters.
Traffic on this important trunk road comes to a standstill when it reaches Elgin, which the minister saw for himself on his recent visit. The road has 16 major junctions, nine roundabouts, four stacking lanes, a bus station that opens directly on to it, a new Tesco opening directly off it, and a large number of heavy goods vehicles using it. There are not enough pedestrian crossings for public safety, but more would impede the flow of traffic still further.
I concur with Maureen Macmillan's comments about the A96. Does she agree that there should be a long-term objective to dual the A96 along its length between Aberdeen and Inverness, and that although it might take 20 years or more to achieve, we should nonetheless put party politics aside and agree the common objective?
We all have dreams and aspirations for different projects in Scotland, and we might not all be able to realise them even in 20 years. However, if the member listens to the rest of my speech, he will get some idea of where I stand.
According to figures obtained over five days, almost 20,000 vehicles pass through Elgin every day. Two thirds of them are local traffic, but one third—between 6,000 and 7,000 vehicles per day—head beyond Elgin and go west towards Inverness and beyond or east towards Buchan, Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen city. Those are significant numbers, and they bear comparison with the numbers of vehicles using the A9 bypasses at Pitlochry and Killiecrankie, for example.
Elgin deserves better than that. It is an ancient and beautiful city that is being strangled by traffic. Highlands and Islands Enterprise Moray and Moray Council have great aspirations for Elgin. As can be seen in the 2020 vision for Moray, they are striving to invigorate Elgin with new business creation, better-paid employment, a growing population and a thriving tourist trade, but that will all be constrained by the present infrastructure. We cannot expand the economy of Elgin in particular and Moray in general without dealing with the A96.
A lot more attention must be paid to the A96 and to the rail links along the A96 corridor. I hesitate to mention the Orton loop to the minister, because it has been about to be dealt with for several years. I hope that we will get some news of progress.
The A96 is a vital link between north and north-east Scotland, especially for the engineering interests around the Moray firth that need good links with Aberdeen. People can travel by dual carriageway from Edinburgh to Aberdeen much more quickly than they can travel from Inverness to Aberdeen, despite the relative distances on the map.
At the end of the previous debate on the Elgin bypass three years ago, the then Minister for Transport, Nicol Stephen, made a commitment to address the short-term congestion problems. However, those problems are now worse than ever because of a sea change in traffic levels and an undoubted increase in the volumes of through traffic, including HGVs, travelling from Inverness to Aberdeen.
Moray Council wants much closer co-operation with Transport Scotland and a real commitment to develop solutions that provide extra capacity for the A96, but that cannot be provided on the current route. We know that A96 corridor studies are in progress but, for the people of Moray, the corridor studies seem to creep along as slowly as the traffic through Elgin. How long will the people of Elgin have to wait for the decision to build a bypass? Indeed, how long will it take for anything to happen once that decision is made? The present, now congested, relief road took 45 years to come to fruition. We do not want to wait 45 years for the situation to be remedied.
I ask the minister for more than warm words. I ask him for a real commitment to Moray and Elgin. I ask him to agree that a bypass is necessary and will happen, so that planning can begin without further delay.
I congratulate Maureen Macmillan on securing tonight's debate. The issue is of vital importance to Elgin and Moray, which I have the privilege of representing. I recognise the role of my predecessor, Margaret Ewing—who sponsored the previous debate on the subject, to which Maureen Macmillan referred—who was a strong supporter of the community-based campaign to secure a bypass for Elgin.
The parliamentary campaign for the bypass started when an 8,000 signature-strong petition was submitted to the Parliament by the Elgin bypass committee, which was led by The Northern Scot and Moray & Nairn Express. After working its way through the system in Parliament, the petition was closed in May this year. Since then, the bypass committee has been extremely busy prosecuting its case and taking it forward. It secured a visit by the Minister for Transport to Elgin. The minister will notice his picture here on the front page of The Northern Scot. During his fantastic visit—which I hope he enjoyed—the minister saw at first hand the traffic problems in Elgin. The headline in The Northern Scot, which organised the visit together with the bypass committee, reads "Bypass plea makes its mark on minister". I hope that that is the case. Perhaps we will find out at the end of the debate.
I pay tribute to all the community campaigners who have run the campaign for so long, including the business community and Moray Council. However, I pay particular tribute to the hugely respected editor of The Northern Scot, Pauline Taylor, who has put so much personal effort into the campaign. The bypass committee is as busy as ever. Although the petition has been closed, the minister will have learned from his visit that the case for a bypass in Elgin is stronger than ever.
Elgin is not only the biggest community in Moray without a bypass, I am told that it is the biggest community in Scotland without a bypass. At the most recent census, Elgin had a population of 22,000. At the moment, the city is undergoing major developments, with on-going house building and major retail developments in the pipeline. Within the next few years, there will be major refits of the neighbouring RAF bases at Kinloss and Lossiemouth. As the minister and the rest of us can imagine, the traffic levels in the years ahead will increase non-stop, given those projects that are in the pipeline.
Moray and Elgin need a transport system that is fit for purpose and fit for the 21st century. In response to the minister's visit a few weeks ago, Pauline Taylor said that Elgin is
"a mediaeval city trying to cope with 21st century traffic".
That sums up the situation. I know that the minister is sympathetic to that viewpoint.
I live in Elgin—I am perhaps the only MSP who lives in Moray—so I share the experiences of my constituents day in, day out. However, the bypass would benefit not only the residents of Elgin but, as Maureen Macmillan said, the people who use the A96, on which Elgin sits. The A96 is the route between Aberdeen, the oil capital of Scotland, and Inverness, the Highland capital. Hundreds of thousands of commuters in Scotland are familiar with the traffic jams and notorious bottlenecks on the A96. The first bottleneck in my constituency is Fochabers, which is notorious. I know that the minister is aware of the situation there: we have the go-ahead for the bypass but we have to wait for the inquiry, and there are various delays. I hope that in his closing speech the minister will address the situation in Fochabers. The other bottleneck is the subject of this debate, which is Elgin itself. Anyone who travels through the north of Scotland will be familiar with both bottlenecks.
I will address the reasons why we must have the Elgin bypass, why we must upgrade the A96 and why we must deal with the other bottlenecks.
The Moray 2020 strategy, which Maureen Macmillan mentioned, was published a while back. At the time, there was a threat to the RAF bases, which thankfully has since been lifted. The strategy recognises that although we have a lot going for us in Moray—our community spirit, our iconic industries and businesses, our fantastic natural environment and our quality of life—the area faces many significant challenges, particularly economic ones. As outlined in the strategy, those economic challenges are illustrated by the fact that three quarters of the young people in Moray leave the area. One thing that we must do is retain our young people in Moray. Three quarters of 17 and 18-year-olds leave Moray to pursue a career elsewhere or to further their education. Very few of them come back to Moray. We must address that problem and change the situation.
The economic challenges are best illustrated by the many examples in the strategy. A lower number of graduates work in our local economy than is the case in most places in Scotland and we have fewer jobs in the private sector—the figure is well below the national average. There is a need for diversification, because most jobs in Moray relate to the food and drink sector, the two RAF bases or the public sector. The focus of the strategy is to bring diversification to the local economy.
The number 1 priority on which the whole community—the business community, residents and everyone else involved in the debate—agrees is that we must upgrade the transport infrastructure. That is seen as the key to securing economic progress for Moray in the 21st century. It is seen as the make-or-break issue, which is why this debate is so important.
We cannot have an A96 upgrade without having the Elgin bypass, as dualling the A96 would not make sense without it.
This evening we are looking for, first, an acknowledgement that the current state of the A96 is unacceptable and that it needs to be upgraded. Secondly, we want the minister to acknowledge that the upgrade should include a bypass for Elgin—I hope that he was persuaded of that during his recent visit. Finally, I would like an indication of the timescale for decisions on the Fochabers bypass, the Elgin bypass and the upgrade of the A96.
If the minister gives us some good news this evening, I promise to get him a nice Speyside malt to reward him for his fantastic news—I am talking about a dram, not a bottle.
Mr Lochhead should close, before he digs himself in any deeper.
We should bear it in mind that a fraction of the £600-odd million that has been talked about for the Edinburgh airport rail link would solve many of our problems in Moray, which have been left to wither on the vine for far too long. I hope that we get some good news from the minister this evening.
I congratulate Maureen Macmillan on securing this most worthwhile debate. Annabel Goldie and I look forward to heading up to her part of the world at the weekend.
I am delighted to be given the opportunity to speak on such a worthy cause. The city of Elgin follows the fine tradition of many of our Scottish cities by being small in scale but perfectly formed. It is the main centre in Moray but is struggling to cope in a 21st century world. As is the case in many of our cities, the infrastructure in the centre of Elgin was not designed to cope with the demands of our modern day way of life. However, as has been mentioned, most of those cities have a bypass in place to help them to cope; Elgin does not. The recent spate of floods in the city has added to the woes of Elgin residents and the strain on its road network. I, and the Conservative party that I represent, whole-heartedly support the introduction of a modern city bypass, which would vastly improve the transport network in Moray.
More than 18,000 vehicles run through Elgin every day. It is estimated that a bypass would remove up to a third of them, including a significant number of HGVs, which our existing roads were not designed to take. A city such as Elgin needs to be given the infrastructure to develop, otherwise it will be swallowed up by terminal decline and competition from neighbours such as Inverness. If companies feel that they do not have access to a transport network that functions well, they will simply locate elsewhere and take their valuable investment with them.
Many local businesses in the Elgin area are of international renown—for example, Walkers Shortbread and Johnstons of Elgin. The Elgin area also has two of the most strategic Royal Air Force bases in the country. Many of the HGVs that service the businesses and bases are almost too big to negotiate the road network, and their efforts to do so cause traffic to grind to a halt. We value our businesses' continued commitment to Moray and it is important that we show our commitment to them by allowing them conditions in which they can thrive.
Throughout the Highlands, the tourism industry is healthy and commands a dominant position. Cities, towns and villages throughout the region benefit from the flood of tourists who come to marvel at our world-famous scenery and friendly welcome. If we are to encourage tourism in Elgin, we must ensure that tourists who go there do not leave with the impression that life in Elgin is a traffic-ridden rat race, with streets clogged with smoke and traffic jams—if, indeed, tourists decide to stop at all.
A city bypass would demonstrate a commitment to the region and an acknowledgement of the value of what it has to offer. However, the argument for a bypass goes further. As other members have said, the issue is not just the need for an Elgin bypass, but the need for an urgent upgrade of the A96 in general. My party has been calling for that for years now. The Labour Government missed an opportunity when it axed our infrastructure upgrade plans in 1997.
The A96 has regularly been voted into the top five of the most unpopular roads in Scotland and its safety record reflects that reputation, being the fifth most dangerous road in Scotland, despite some £8.9 million of Executive money having been spent on improvements in recent years. What we need is a solution, not a sticking plaster, which is why I want to see a commitment to a full upgrade of the A96, not just temporary remedial measures here and there.
In a recent survey by HIE, 80 per cent of respondents deemed the A96 to be unsatisfactory or worse. Equally disturbing, the survey found that the A96 was viewed as constraining Moray's ability to benefit from the expansion of companies from the Aberdeen hinterland. Nearly a fifth of businesses felt that the A96 represented a constraint to the development of their business in general. That may be a relatively low figure, but if a fifth of an area's businesses are being held back, how does the Executive expect that area to compete in the global economic climate? It is no wonder that we have a situation in which population numbers in the Highlands and Islands are declining and many locals are in despair over a faltering economy, traffic chaos and a lack of affordable housing.
I am pleased that my party, and my predecessor, Mary Scanlon, in particular, have done so much to highlight and campaign on the issues surrounding the A96 and an Elgin bypass. I whole-heartedly add my support to the motion. It is important that the Executive shows its commitment to having a 21st century road infrastructure to serve a 21st century Scotland. I might add that the Conservative party acknowledged the need for that when we were in Government. Its absence in Moray is holding back the social, economic and environmental development of the whole region. With such an apparent consensus on this most serious issue, it seems incredible that the Executive has still not woken up to it.
I am afraid that I am not in accord with the "apparent consensus". We last debated this topic three years ago; I was a lone voice then and I expect to be a lone voice today. I probably risk damaging in its early stages the fragile relationship that my party has with the Scottish National Party transport spokesperson, but there you go.
In 1978, I was working in Elgin as the casualty doctor in Dr Gray's hospital. At that time, the A96 went right through the main street of Elgin. Everybody had campaigned for the ring road that was just beginning to be built then, which would solve all their problems—of course, it did not, because ring roads never do. Trying to build our way out of congestion with new roads does not work. Sooner or later we must tackle that problem.
Dave Petrie said that we need "a solution, not a sticking plaster". However, to me, a bypass is a sticking plaster; the solution is to reduce the level of traffic. Maureen Macmillan and others said that the rail network in the Moray area needs to be upgraded as well—that is so true. We have a two-lane road that some would like to be made into a dual carriageway—that would not be one of my priorities—but we have only a single-track railway, which has been neglected and has suffered from underinvestment. It is not fit for purpose and needs to be upgraded. We need to consider other modes of transport and to get traffic off the roads, instead of trying to find ways to transport it more quickly round the edges of our cities.
We must integrate public transport better so that it becomes more usable. Members have talked about all the local traffic around Elgin, which is partly due to there being no integration of transport either in timetabling or spatially. Buses to Elgin arrive a mile and a half away from the station. Elgin has a nice, newish station and not a bad train service, considering the constraints under which it operates. The line is inadequate, the trains are small and there is often standing room only, but at least there are trains.
However, a student from Burghead or Garmouth who was getting the train back to university in Aberdeen would arrive by bus in Elgin and have to lug their luggage a mile and a half to the station. That is just not on. People drive in Elgin because the public transport there has not been integrated—as usual, we are not joining the dots, but we should approach the issue from that point of view.
I do not regard Elgin as a town that is bisected by a main road; I have sympathy with towns such as Fochabers, which genuinely are so bisected. The ring road at Fochabers was built to take the traffic out of the main street. We must ask ourselves whether we are going to go down the route of serial bypass building, so that, when each one ceases to be a bypass and is simply a road around which more development has happened, people will ask for another bypass further out. Sooner or later we must bite the bullet and address traffic reduction.
We cannot build to accommodate an ever-increasing, climate-damaging, unsustainable mode of transport that is just not going to be feasible in the 21st century. We must start to shift transport to more environmentally friendly modes and consider the reasons why people make journeys, so that they do not have to drive long distances to access services. In short, we must try to get traffic off the roads, not build more roads to carry that traffic.
I thank Maureen Macmillan for the thoughtful way in which she introduced this evening's debate. I also thank Richard Lochhead, David Petrie and Eleanor Scott for their speeches, much of which I agreed with. I have one or two thoughts on them that I would like to share.
I drove along the A96 many times in my former employment, so I appreciate the points that Maureen Macmillan and Richard Lochhead made about the change along the entire length of the road. I was usually travelling from Aberdeen to Inverness but, on occasion, I had to drive all the way from Scrabster to Aberdeen. I appreciate the points that were made about the change in the road in recent times, which is possibly the important issue in the debate. Eleanor Scott might argue that that relates to general traffic growth, and there is no doubt that there has been traffic growth in the area. I will come on to that. We had a discussion with Moray Council about whether that is a strategic or a local issue, but I acknowledge the points that Maureen Macmillan and Richard Lochhead made.
In response to David Petrie's remarks, I advise members that—as I understand the figures—far from falling, the population of the Highlands and Islands is rising at this time. If he was making a specific point about Moray, however, I take that on board.
I say gently to our colleagues on the Green benches that I could not agree more with the point that Eleanor Scott made about interchanges. I work as hard as I can on what we can do to improve interchanges in villages, towns and cities. However, I do not think that, having voted against an interchange half an hour earlier, as the Greens did this afternoon, they can argue for better interchanges in Elgin. We need to be consistent in how we approach policy.
I accept Maureen Macmillan's point about it taking 45 years to build the existing relief road in Elgin. That was a fair observation. This august institution has been here for only seven years or so; therefore, we have a number of years to get things right. I take the point that she made seriously.
I learned much from my visit to Elgin in August. I had not seen The Northern Scot, but I had seen the cuttings. To Mr Lochhead, I say that the picture that I was in was one of the better ones. I acknowledge how direct but fair Pauline Taylor was in expressing the views of the campaigners. I found it interesting that a powerful advocate for her area is also the editor of the local paper. It would certainly be interesting if the same was true on my own patch.
I took the campaign group's arguments seriously and I accept what members have said about the consistency of the campaign group's message. There has been strong local support for the project—members have mentioned the strong leadership of the late Margaret Ewing, who was the local MSP. There has also been a steady stream of correspondence from members of all parties, and plenty of parliamentary questions as well. I attach considerable importance to those representations on how we should best resolve Elgin's traffic problems in conjunction with the good people of Elgin and Moray.
A benefit of being able to attend the meeting at Moray Council was that we were able consider short-term actions to improve the town now. We agreed on three such actions; I will go through them quickly. First, I wanted to ensure that there were good lines of communication between Moray Council and Transport Scotland. That is now happening; a liaison officer in Transport Scotland has specific responsibility for Elgin and Moray. I am sure that members will welcome the opportunity to speak with him.
Secondly, Moray Council has said that further work is required to analyse the traffic problems. I agree, both from the perspective that Maureen Macmillan and Richard Lochhead gave me this afternoon, and from the perspective that Eleanor Scott has given me. There are now regular meetings between Transport Scotland and Moray Council officers to consider such an analysis.
Thirdly, Moray Council asked for improved traffic counts on the A96 and at other specified locations in the Elgin area, so that we can analyse the data and understand traffic movements better. That is now happening. Those were the three things that I was asked to do and I am pleased that they are all moving forward.
Transport Scotland is developing relationships with local councils through the regional transport partnerships. It is now meeting the Highlands and Islands transport partnership and the north-east Scotland transport partnership on the trunk roads directorates so that work is fully explained and relationships are developed. That is important, and such a relationship is evident in our Aberdeen to Inverness corridor study steering group, on which Moray Council is represented and plays a full and active part.
This is a good time to be debating the issue, because we are in the final stages of completing the national transport strategy, which will provide a rational, objective and structured policy framework to guide future national and strategic investment programmes. When we present the strategy to Parliament, I do not think that anything in it will cause Richard Lochhead or Maureen Macmillan any worries: on the contrary, they will be able to see the helpfulness of the arguments within the strategy.
Closely linked to the strategy will be the strategic transport projects review, which will identify and prioritise our national investment programme for the future beyond 2012. I appreciate that that is not quick enough, but I have to be straight with colleagues about where our programme is now—by definition, that programme is full in relation to spending—and about what we can do in the future.
We will make progress by taking a corridor-by-corridor approach. In this case, that is the Aberdeen to Inverness corridor—or the Inverness to Aberdeen corridor, depending on how one sees it. The review will take into account the points that Maureen Macmillan and Richard Lochhead have raised about Elgin, but it will also take into account the fair point that Eleanor Scott made about the comparison between journey times on road and rail. The review will assess such things properly, robustly and correctly; that is the right way to ensure that the Government of the day will make the right decisions.
We will ensure that HITRANS and NESTRANS assist us with identifying options in the Aberdeen to Inverness multimodal corridor study. I assure members that I am ready to take decisive steps to ensure that we provide a fair share of future investment to the Highlands and the north-east. We will do that responsibly, based on a rigorous and objective assessment of what is required and how it can be delivered over time with the resources and budget that will be available to us.
Rome was not built in a day, but nor should it take 45 years. The solutions to Elgin's traffic problems must be addressed. We are putting the right mechanisms in place to ensure that we identify rational and appropriate measures to tackle the problems and, in that context, to identify our priorities for future investment. I will keep Parliament updated on our progress towards that objective.
Meeting closed at 17:39.