A9 dualling: Road’s bad reputation deterring visitors and businesses from Highlands – Inverness Chamber of Commerce

Group criticises ministers and their officials for lacking commitment to complete the upgrade by its original 2025 target

Visitors and business people are being deterred from coming to the Highlands because of the “bad reputation” of the A9, Inverness Chamber of Commerce has told MSPs.

The body said companies and staff could be reluctant to move to the region “because of the perception of how hard it is to get to anywhere else”, while tourists “find other places where their journey doesn’t include a ‘dangerous road’.”

The business group insisted the Scottish Government’s original target of completing dualling of the road between Perth and Inverness by 2025 had been achievable, but it had not been met because of a lack of commitment by either ministers or their officials.

The latest stretch of the A9 to be dualled opened between Luncarty and Birnam in 2021. (Photo by John Devlin/The Scotsman)

It criticised transport secretary Mairi McAllan for seeking to blame other factors such as inflation and the project’s complexity when she announced in December the scheme would not now be finished until 2035 – a decade later.

The Chamber of Commerce’s comments came in evidence to an inquiry into the dualling programme launched by the Scottish Parliament’s citizen participation and public petitions committee, which is due to hear from senior officials from the Scottish Government’s Transport Scotland agency on Wednesday.

The chamber also called for ministers to set out milestones for the remainder of the project and provide a timetable of updates, having already expressed scepticism about the new 2035 completion date.

The 70 miles still to be dualled will be built as six projects, with construction due to continue without a break once work starts on the first of these, between Tomatin and Moy, this summer.

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The chamber said drivers felt strongly that many signs showing speed limits, which it said had been rejected by Transport Scotland for not conforming to “technical standards”, would have a major positive impact.

The “national speed limit” signs used on that stretch of the road show a black diagonal line on a white background, rather than the speed limit. There are 50mph signs on single carriageway sections for lorries, where the speed limit for cars there is 60mph.

The chamber’s submission to the inquiry said: "The road has such a bad reputation that people are put off from coming here and from doing business with us. Businesses can be reluctant to locate here, and staff are reluctant to work here, because of the perception of how hard it is to get to anywhere else.

“It is our view that the primary reason for failing to meet this [2025] deadline was a lack of commitment. We can’t know whether that lack of commitment was from government ministers or from officials at Transport Scotland, but there is sufficient expert evidence to support the notion that the original timetable was achievable.”

Transport Scotland said it had concluded in late 2022 the 2025 completion date could not be achieved. But its spokesperson insisted: “Considerable work has been undertaken to progress the development and delivery of the A9 dualling programme in a timely manner, including detail of the overall plan for completion.

"As part of this process, we have engaged regularly with stakeholders, offering advice and updates on how this work has progressed.”