Chamber and committees

Investment has been made in infrastructure in the south-west of Scotland. I never said that that was impossible.

I lodged an amendment to the motion today, not because I disagree with Mr Carson but because I believe that the motion would benefit from more detail. While Mr Carson’s motion rightly cites the need to improve the A75 and points to recent road accidents, including the most recent one in the village of Crocketford, it does not acknowledge the commitments that the Scottish Government has made for the A75 in STPR2. The motion also doesnae call for timescales for the improvements to be carried out. STPR2 includes many important recommendations for the A75 and A77 improvements that many, including the A75 and A77 action groups, have been calling for, for many years.

Ah am no disagreein wi the Opposition here. I also get a lot in my mailbag about these things, so I think that we need to work together to look at how we can lobby for improvements to those roads.

We know that STPR2 has considered

“improving junctions and enhancing overtaking opportunities”.

Looking at the time, I do not think that I will.

We need to consider widening carriageways and realignment to alleviate pinch points and so on.

The STPR2 includes bypassing the villages of Springholm and Crocketford, as well as improving Cuckoo Bridge roundabout in Dumfries, which is a wee bit further east than Mr Carson’s constituency. It is worth mentioning that Springholm and Crocketford are the only two villages in the UK through which a major European route goes directly, so the recommendations for bypasses for the villages are extremely important.

Instead of focusing on negativity about the time that those recommendations have taken to come forward, I want to focus on their implementation, although I am conscious of the time, Presiding Officer.

I know that transport is devolved, and in the absence of borrowing powers for the Scottish Parliament, funding from the UK Government could further enhance the commitments that have been made in STPR2. I would therefore be grateful for an update from the minister on the timescales for investment in the A75 and A77.

A couple of years ago, I proposed that Dumfries was made a city. Part of that commitment would involve better infrastructure investment to connect cities to regional roads. However, Oliver Mundell opposed that proposal. Does he not think that we could have considered working together on that, to improve infrastructure investment in our main town in Dumfries and Galloway?

I thank Finlay Carson for securing the debate, and start by agreeing with him that it is time for much-needed upgrades on the A75 and A77. We have campaigned for such upgrades for years. I agree with so much of what Mr Carson said, and we have spoken about the A75 and A77 many times in previous debates and questions in the Parliament. The upgrades are needed to improve those main arterial routes and they should be done on the grounds of safety and efficiency.

My condolences go to the families of the people who have lost their lives on those roads. Those losses show the absolute need for safety to be a primary concern and the reason for improvements to be made.

I also pay tribute to the A75 and A77 action groups and welcome their continued campaigning efforts.

We have now seen the publication of the Scottish Government’s STPR2, as well as the UK Government’s commitment to providing additional funding specifically for the A75. Mr Carson mentioned that I wrote to the UK Government. Part of the rationale for doing that was that the infrastructure investment—the cost of widening or dualling the roads or whatever we need to do to them—would be a phenomenal amount of money and Scotland cannae borrow under the current fiscal arrangements, so I was asking for that option.

I take Willie Rennie’s point that it is difficult to build on brownfield sites. That is one of the challenges that I have found. Does he agree that we need to enable our laws to support local authorities to do whatever they can to address brownfield sites?

I was up on my feet earlier attempting to intervene. We have talked about derelict sites, and Paul Sweeney made a valid point on VAT. You said that planning is completely—

Okay. Thank you.

I have a final question about Covid. During the pandemic, services were changed and redesigned, and care was delivered differently. One issue was that people had digital appointments with their healthcare provider. What cost savings do you foresee being achieved by such approaches to service redesign, including, for example, the use of digital?

The cabinet secretary has mentioned spending on child and adult mental health through the communities mental health and wellbeing fund. Obviously, we can continue to monitor the support through and outcomes from mental health funding. We know about the challenges for our healthcare professionals and for everyone else. I am not sure whether the cabinet secretary needs to comment further on that, but I am interested in that specific aspect of funding to support people’s mental health in Scotland.

I know that vaccination will be on-going, and a new variant has now appeared: XBB.1.5. As I was part of the vaccination programme in NHS Dumfries and Galloway, I was able to learn a lot about the different vaccines that were produced. Is it reasonable for the UK Government just to terminate the funding, rather than, as you say, having a phased reduction?