Chamber and committees

I just want to say thank you. I know that everybody wants their part of the county to be seen as a priority. The south-west wants to be seen as a priority, as do other parts of the country. The challenge for any cabinet secretary, particularly the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, is that members feel passionately about their area and want to pursue the best for their constituents. I know that I cannot please everybody all the time, but I reassure the committee that, since becoming the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, I have given every attention to getting momentum and making progress in a number of areas, including the ones that you have identified in these petitions.

The estimated cost for the permanent long-term solution is between £408 million and £510 million in quarter four 2024 prices. We will need to identify how long the construction will take. There has been significant investment in the old military road, which I have inspected and which anyone who is driving on that road will be able to identify. As I said, even with the improvements that have been made, there are on-going issues in the short term, with challenges such as increasing wet weather and ground saturation. A lot of science has been involved in monitoring the water levels, which also allows us to activate in advance the old military road when it is required.

I want to say publicly that we are also working very hard with the BBC and STV so that, when they make announcements about the impact of weather, they indicate that the A83 is still open, even if the old military road is being used as a diversion, which is important. In the past—and this still happens sometimes—they have said “The A83 is closed”, which implies that Argyll is closed, but it is not. As I said, things such as that can also make a difference, although I acknowledge that that addresses a different point to your question.

My officials might be able to talk about what is required and when with regard to the roll-out of spend.

I do not think that they have been abandoned. The level of investment that I recounted in my opening statement, including, significantly, the Maybole bypass, which had been requested for a long time, has brought major improvements. I am very familiar with the area because it is where I grew up. There are current attempts to improve the junction around Corton Road and Doonholm Road; I learned to drive on Corton Road and know exactly where that is. There is signalisation there as well as improvement work for people who are crossing at Kirkoswald.

There is also the issue of strengthening bridges, especially where there is heavy traffic, and the Ballantrae bridge is being improved and strengthened, although that is taking a little longer than people wanted. One issue that I addressed when I met the petitioners was the importance of communication, because when, for understandable reasons, road works take longer, it is important that that is communicated appropriately.

I fully understand your central point about the importance of the A77, and the A75 to Cairnryan, as arteries. I am meeting the south-west alliance of ferry companies on a ferry tomorrow, because I will be travelling to the British-Irish Council. I have also been clear in my interministerial meetings with United Kingdom ministers that I want to see an understanding that those roads are important not only within Scotland but as arteries to elsewhere. I should also declare an interest, because I represent West Lothian where we have a number of supermarket warehouses, and Schuh has its warehouse in a neighbouring constituency in order to access the Irish market. A lot of traffic uses that route to move from the central belt to Northern Ireland.

We are working with the Welsh Government and others to review the resilience of ports and harbours. There have been pressures on Holyhead, because of the impact of storms, and Cairnryan had to react by absorbing a lot of traffic at short notice for a number of days in order to help resolve that situation. I see the A75 as an artery and an economic issue, not just a local road, and the same is the case for the A77. There are challenges with its width in certain areas.

When I had my meeting about the A77 and A75 at Girvan library with the petitioners, we worked through what they saw as the priorities. At the convention of the south of Scotland, which was on transport, I met Gail Macgregor, the leader of Dumfries and Galloway Council, and last week I met Martin Dowie, the leader of South Ayrshire Council, and I know that they are comfortable with what we are trying to do in looking at improvements.

I know that this is a long-standing petition and that the petitioners want dualling. However, there are challenges in ensuring that we deliver the dualling that we have said that we will deliver, and I want to be open with the committee by saying that it is not going to be realistic to promise any new dualling. What we can do is ensure that we are working systematically through the issues.

I am struck by the fact that, south of Ballantrae, there is an adverse camber, which could be important for big lorries. I have worked closely with the Road Haulage Association to look at how we can help the industry by understanding its needs and then working systematically through what is required. I have asked for that to be done for the A75 and the A77.

But the petitioner in this case is actually south of the Whitletts roundabout, and not far from there is the junction at Doonholm Road and Corton Road, to which I referred, which is currently subject to roadworks with signalisation. Why is that increasingly important? I remember coming out of that road once to ferry traffic, even though it is quite a long distance from Cairnryan. You would be stuck on that road for a long time with that traffic, and you had to wait until everybody was through before you could pull out.

There has been major housing development in that area, and more is proposed, so that is a pinch point, and that is why there is signalisation. However frustrating that is for people while it is on, it means that the traffic is being managed by traffic lights, although that does frustrate people, too. When work is being done, there is a delay, and the delays are often perceived as major, but they can be 10 or 15 minutes at most; sometimes they are much less. However, people like to keep moving, and if they are stopped, they get frustrated.

That is an example of a pinch point that has been identified, but that is further downstream, and south of Whitletts, which is the area in which the petitioner is interested.

The project has short, medium and long-term aspects. The option that will be proceeded with has been chosen and we are now embarking on its initial design, which is going through the processes that are set out in the design manual that we talked about earlier.

Some of the short-term improvements relate to the catchment area. Funnily enough, we were in Inveraray at an A83 task force meeting—I think that Jackie Baillie was one of the MSPs who dialled into that meeting—that took place just before Storm Babet, so we were hearing directly from Amey about what was going to happen with the rainfall that was expected, and, a couple of days later, we saw the consequences. There have been some landslides in areas beyond the areas that were initially identified, so, in the short term, there has been investment in those areas.

Significant work has been done on the medium-term aspects, which involves strengthening the old military road and improving bends on it. Quite a lot has been invested in the old military road to help with the current diversions and in relation to what will be required for the final design as part of the long-term project, which involves the covering that will ensure the long-term sustainable future of the A83.

In terms of capital budgets, the committee will be aware that we do not keep pots of money aside and say, “That’s marked for the A83 and is only to be opened at such a time as it will be invested.” We are only starting with the initial aspects of the DMRB. We have just issued the draft orders—perhaps my colleagues can remind me when that took place.

The point that you raise about the petitioners’ request for a STAG process to be applied is central to the petition.

You are looking for reassurance. Concerns regarding the application of the STAG process to the A82 Tarbet to Inverarnan scheme were raised separately with Audit Scotland, in similar terms to those that were put forward in the petition. Audit Scotland investigated and confirmed to Transport Scotland on 15 November 2022 that it had considered the requirements of the STAG process and reviewed relevant evidence. The auditor concluded that the STAG process had been applied in the initial stages of the work on the A82.

That is done regularly. However challenging and difficult it is, that has happened. We acknowledge that the A82 is a major route, which is one reason why we will not be able to do the work on it at the same time as the work on the A83. Everyone is fully aware of that. It will be a case of handling and managing the situation. That will be very important indeed when the time comes. However, as I said in my general remarks, we cannot improve roads, or have new projects, without disruption. The issue is how that disruption is handled.

I do not think that it has been deliberate. Your question is interpretive and asserts an opinion—to which you are entitled.

I will run through the timescale. In November 2016, the draft orders and environmental statement were published. There were 154 representations—including, interestingly, 127 objections—following their publication, which led, at the end of 2018, to a public local inquiry to consider unresolved objections. I have already relayed, in relation to other issues, that the time that public inquiries can take up is necessary. That is the process, should there be significant objections. As transport secretary, I have been encouraging people to do as much work in advance with interested parties to try to avoid that.

In October 2019, the public local inquiry reporters’ report was submitted to the Scottish Government. In February 2021—you will be aware that that was during the pandemic—the decision to proceed was announced, following consideration of the objections, along with, importantly, the reasoned conclusions and recommendations of the reporters.

This is where I recognise that there has been a delay. In March 2024, made orders for the scheme were published, which provided Scottish ministers with the powers to acquire the land to build the scheme. In March 2025, all the relevant landowners were communicated with, and procedural steps to acquire the land were taken, as those were required for the scheme to be completed. As I said, Scottish ministers will take title to the land on 21 April 2025. Our having completed those procedures helps us to identify the funding routes and the potential funding mechanisms.

Importantly, on the timetable—the focus of the petition—that is about determining whether it is a smaller project, which would start with the bypass itself, or a longer one, or which sections are done. That will help to determine the timetable.

I have been as open as I can be, and as I have been previously, in laying out what the procedures have been. The public local inquiry, with 127 objections, was a key issue in that process, which is not necessarily the case for the other projects that we are talking about.

All right.

Actually, I do not think that—