We can win road campaign

THERE was an immediate and gratifying response to our new campaign to improve safety on the A85 between Oban and Connel.

After we launched the vital campaign in last week’s Oban Times, Inspector Mark Stephen called to thank us for our initiative and many readers were in touch to voice support for what we are doing.

As we reported last week, at least 11 people have died and numerous others have been injured – many of them catastrophically – since the year 2000 on that stretch of road.

Furthermore, buses often cannot stop at the gates of Pennyfuir cemetery because it is unsafe to drop- off or pick up passengers trying to visit their loved ones.

Repeated attempts to have the statutory bodies responsible for the road to implement increased safety measures have failed because those who hold the purse-strings deem it not important enough.

Meanwhile, countless millions of pounds are spent on roads in the central belt. It is little short of scandalous.

Our demands are three-fold, simple and inexpensive: reduce the speed limit on the road, paint double white lines to prevent overtaking and create a lay-by at the cemetery.

With regard to the last demand, the space is already there – it requires only the will to remove the kerbs and grass to allow buses to pull in.

With the tourist season imminent, the A85 will soon be busier than ever and, if history teaches us anything, there will be more accidents and more deaths. That is unacceptable.

I think this is a campaign we can win. Even more than that, it is a cause we simply cannot afford to lose.