Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Official Report 493KB pdf

Petition

A90/A937 (Safety Improvements) (PE1236)

Agenda item 4 is consideration of petition PE1236, by Jill Fotheringham, which calls on the Scottish Government to improve safety measures on the A90 by constructing a grade-separated junction where the A937 crosses the A90 at Laurencekirk.

I refer members to paper 4, which has an update from Transport Scotland confirming that

“the Scottish Government will provide £24 million of funding to take forward the design and construction of a grade-separated junction at the A90/A937 south junction at Laurencekirk”,

as the petitioner has requested. The update also states:

“The next stage in the scheme development is to progress with the design phases of the junction upgrade ... Transport Scotland will look to appoint consultants and begin work to take the scheme through design development and statutory authorisation.”

The committee is invited to consider the update and to agree whether it wishes to take any further action in relation to the petition. The committee has the option of closing the petition should it consider that its objectives have been met. Should the committee wish to keep the petition open, the committee would be required to add the petition to its legacy paper for its successor committee to consider further in session 5.

I invite comments from members.

My comment is: so near and yet so far. I am delighted that the Government has now allocated funds to the creation of a grade-separated junction at Laurencekirk and made it a priority. However, the answers that we received from the minister indicate that there is still one potential issue.

That issue is that the minister indicated that there was an expectation or a possibility that the Government might seek local planning development funding for the junction. The problem locally is that planners see their commitment to developing the local road network and junctions as being focused on a different junction—the north junction to Laurencekirk, which is the one that is likely to be used by commuters who live in the homes that will be built there.

A view has been expressed locally and by planning applicants that any attempt to use planning funding to develop the south junction would be open to legal challenge and would be unlikely to succeed.

My concern is that the Government has not yet conceded that funding achieved through local planning developments would not be allocated to the south junction. My concern remains adequate enough to suggest that the petition should be retained.

Okay. As no other members have any comments to make, are members agreed that we wish to keep the petition open?

Members indicated agreement.

We will keep the petition open and add it to the legacy paper for our successor committee to consider further in session 5.