Government response on Rest ‘not acceptable’

THE MID Argyll councillor behind a petition to improve the A83 trunk road at the Rest and be Thankful says he is ‘not surprised’ by a Scottish Government response to his campaign.

Douglas Philand, with the backing of the Argyll First group within Argyll and Bute Council, lodged the petition in November 2014.

The Scottish Parliament Petitions Committee discussed the petition at a June hearing, where it agreed to contact the Scottish Government to ask for clarification on plans for the Rest. Committee chair, Johann Lamont MSP, said at the time: ‘There is no doubt this has a massive impact at a local level on tourism, the local community and the local economy.

In a written reply to the committee Jonathan Moran, network operations manager with Transport Scotland, outlined planned work at the Rest, including £6.6 million expenditure in ‘mitigation works’ and upgrading the old military road over the next two years.

Mr Moran added: ‘The matters raised… cover a range of topics which continue to be discussed at the A83 taskforce meetings.’

Councillor Philand commented: ‘I am not surprised that they are still talking about mitigation. But this is not acceptable, and we need to stress that spending money on a permanent solution would cost less in the long term.’

The petitions committee is set to consider the A83 petition again next Thursday, September 29.