Chamber and committees

Dumfries and Galloway Council were invited by the Scottish Executiveon  1 April 2003, to explore the possibilities of an alternative schemein the Gateside area of the A76. There are no plans to appoint additional consultantsfor this work.

Sixty-two per cent farm business in the constituencies of Dumfries and Galloway and Upper Nithsdale were paid under the Single Farm Payment Scheme by 31 December 2005. The number of businesses represented by this percentage is 1,267 and the total value of the payments was £23,738,576.28. As at 20 January 2006, the payment position for Scotland is that 16,611 producers have been paid a total of approximately £224 million.

Unfortunately, I cannot give a single date when the remaining producers can expect to be paid. That depends on individual circumstances as payments cannot be made until all scheme eligibility checks have been completed. The remaining producers with valid claims will be paid as soon as possible

The following table describes the accidents and accident rates for the A76 trunk road between New Cumnock and Sanquhar between January 2000 and December 2004:

Year	Fatal	Serious	Slight	Accident Rate per Million Vehicle Kilometres
2000	0	2	6	0.27
2001	0	3	11	0.48
2002	0	4	4	0.27
2003	0	1	11	0.41
2004	0	2	10	0.41

 

The figures quoted may differ slightly from those published elsewhere because they were extracted on a different date and the database may have changed between the two dates e.g. due to late returns or corrections to earlier returns.

Accident rates are based on an Annual Average Daily Flow of 3,930 vehicles per day over the period 2000-04 and the accidents which occurred over a 20.3km stretch of the A76 between New Cumnock and Sanquhar. The national average single carriageway accident rate for 2002-04 (the latest full three years data) is 0.206 accidents per million vehicle kilometres.

Transport Scotland has the operational responsibility for this area, and can be contacted for more information if required.

The Scottish Executive has 12 permanent automatic traffic counters located on the A76. Traffic data from these sites is collected on an hourly basis. The data is then loaded and held within the Scottish Roads Traffic Database.

The site locations and Annual Average Daily Flows from January 2000 are as follows:

Location	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005*
Immediately northwest of A75	19,296	18,923	20,461	23,963	24,169	23,849
Newbridge Diversion	7,476	6,840	5,934	8,030	8,171	7,402
Northwest of Auldgirth	5,082	4,906	5,188	5,250	5,333	5,565
Between Carronbridge and Enterkinfoot	2,992	2,329	2,486	2,708	3,156	2,818
Mennock	3,004	2,886	2,861	3,074	3,255	3,166
Polshill Bridge	2,521	N/A	N/A	2,881	2,965	2,968
Cumnock/Auchinleck Bypass (B7083 and A70)	N/A	4,469	5,282	5,792	6,083	5,483
Cumnock/Auchinleck Bypass (A70 and B7083)	N/A	N/A	4,923	5,801	6,047	6,289
Little Heateth	N/A	N/A	9,649	9,480	9,784	10,308
Crosshands	8,163	9,598	9,894	10,138	9,133	9,126
Crossroads	10,239	N/A	10,811	10,193	11,637	11,389
Bowhouse Roundabout	9,529	9,642	9,826	9,702	10,361	9,742

Notes:

1. N/A is indicative of probable equipment failure that resulted in no data being collected.

2. *2005 data collection is not yet complete.

Transport Scotland has the operational responsibility for this area, and can be contacted for more information if required.

The number of injury accidents recorded on the A76 between New Cumnock and Dumfries between 1996 and 2004 is as follows:

New Cumnock to Kirkconnel

Year	Fatalities	Fatal Accidents	Serious Accidents	Slight Accidents
1996	0	0	3	4
1997	0	0	0	6
1998	0	0	1	6
1999	0	0	3	5
2000	0	0	2	3
2001	0	0	3	7
2002	0	0	3	4
2003	0	0	0	6
2004	0	0	1	6

 

Kirkconnel to Sanquhar

Year	Fatalities	Fatal Accidents	Serious Accidents	Slight Accidents
1996	0	0	0	1
1997	0	0	1	0
1998	0	0	1	2
1999	1	1	0	3
2000	0	0	0	3
2001	0	0	0	4
2002	0	0	1	0
2003	0	0	1	5
2004	0	0	1	4

 

Sanquhar to Thornhill

Year	Fatalities	Fatal Accidents	Serious Accidents	Slight Accidents
1996	0	0	0	2
1997	4	2	3	2
1998	1	1	0	5
1999	0	0	0	1
2000	1	1	2	3
2001	0	0	3	3
2002	1	1	1	3
2003	0	0	2	3
2004	0	0	2	2

 

Thornhill to Auldgirth

Year	Fatalities	Fatal Accidents	Serious Accidents	Slight Accidents
1996	0	0	1	4
1997	5	2	0	2
1998	1	1	1	2
1999	0	0	0	3
2000	0	0	0	4
2001	0	0	2	2
2002	0	0	2	3
2003	0	0	1	2
2004	0	0	3	6

 

Auldgirth to Dumfries

Year	Fatalities	Fatal Accidents	Serious Accidents	Slight Accidents
1996	0	0	4	7
1997	2	1	0	2
1998	1	1	8	9
1999	1	1	3	2
2000	1	1	3	6
2001	0	0	4	6
2002	0	0	0	8
2003	0	0	0	9
2004	0	0	2	4

 

The figures quoted may differ slightly from those published elsewhere because they were extracted on a different date and the database may have changed between the two dates e.g. due to late returns or corrections to earlier returns.

Transport Scotland has the operational responsibility for this area, and can be contacted for more information if required.

The estimated cost of the proposed A76 Gateside-Knockenjig scheme was £1.7 million but this failed to satisfy value for money criteria or offer significant operational benefits. An attempt to redefine the scheme failed to gain support of the local landowners and the scheme was subsequently abandoned in December 2002.

The schemes at Polquhirter, Brackenhill and Cample identified in the A76 Route Action Plan were not selected as projects that should be taken forward as part of the Route Action Plan Review in 2002. As such they have not been subject to the Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance.

The A76 Glenairlie scheme has not been subject to STAG since it had already reached a significant stage of development before the introduction of that appraisal methodology. It is subject to an Environmental Statement which will be published with the statutory road orders at the end of January. An economic assessment has been carried out and the scheme does represent value for money. The land required to build the scheme has not yet been acquired and a draft compulsory purchase order will also be published at the end of January.

The Executive has no responsibility to distribute guidance produced by voluntary organisations, but may do so in exceptional circumstances. Action for ME’s existing guidance was aimed at English GPs and grant-funded by the UK Department of Health. The Executive has grant-funded Action for ME to produce guidance suitable for Scotland. This work is now nearing completion. The Executive will facilitate the distribution of the guidance in due course. Decisions on the treatment of individual cases will remain a matter of clinical judgement, in consultation with the patient.

I refer to the parliamentary debate on the A76 on 7 December 2005 in which I said that the current trunk road programme is full, with more than 40 major projects that will serve communities and users throughout Scotland, including the A76 Glenairlie scheme. In 2006 we will start work on the strategic projects review, which will provide an opportunity to consider the major public transport and road transport priorities for the future. The review will take into account issues of national or strategic importance that affect the trunk road network throughout Scotland, including the trunk road network in south-west Scotland. The A76 will be part of that review.