Solution is needed to solve road logjam
Sir,
Joe Wilson’s justified praise (The Oban Times, September 21) of I&H Brown’s well-managed roundabout construction is timely and serves to remind us of the 30th anniversary of the publication of Trunk Road Orders for the proposed realignment of the A82 from the old Fort roundabout to the Fort William Golf Club and to reflect on how we got to the current situation.
Thirty years ago, prior to devolution and the existence of Transport Scotland, BEAR and the like, Highland Regional Council, along with other regional councils, was the agent of the Scottish Development Department (SDD) for management of the trunk roads in its area.
On September 28, 1987, the notice heralding the Trunk Road Orders was published for the route which would have extended from An Aird, round Inverlochy, crossing the A82 by flyover at the Tailrace and continuing through Jewson’s yard, then council-owned, parallel to the railway, to join the existing A82 close to the golf club. The A830 would be extended to join the new road at a roundabout south of the distillery.
While local traffic would still be able to use the existing A82 to access premises on the North Road, the loss of passing tourist trade was a matter of concern to the owners of the Milton (now Ben Nevis) Hotel who persuaded the Fort William Chamber of Commerce and Lochaber District Council to oppose the regional council’s proposal at a public local inquiry, jointly financing the considerable cost of a QC to do so.
These parties were successful in blocking the proposed A82 realignment and the Caol link road was offered as an alternative at that time. Consequently, the entire project was stopped and, since then, the political logjam of the A82 realignment versus the Caol link road has presented a convenient local dilemma to the benefit of parties furth of Lochaber who had few qualms in diverting trunk road funds to the A96, A9 and the like.
Since 1996, the Highland Council has safeguarded both routes in its various local plans but under the current draft revision of the West Plan indicated that it intended to drop the safeguard on the A82 realignment since it wouldn’t open up any development land; of course it wouldn’t, since that’s not the function of a trunk road.
Among others, I objected and I am pleased that the matter has now been held over awaiting a roads review called a STAG appraisal which has been the subject of earlier columns in this newspaper.
Readers will also be interested to learn that the original improvement scheme for the A82 Glen Nevis junction that was recommended to the Scottish Development Department in the late seventies was for a right-turning lane which would have retained the priority for the A82 in both directions.
Intervention by the then under-construction woollen mill meant that the SDD stipulated a mini roundabout, much in vogue at that time, thus allowing the woollen mill traffic the same priority as the A82, which was far from logical.
Delay on the A82 is a trunk road problem for Transport Scotland to deal with and the chance of an Inverness-centred Highland Council financing a Caol link road to solve a separate issue is nil and remains a distraction.
As divisional road engineer with the regional council at the time, I find this a pretty gloomy anniversary; things could have been very much different. Thirty years on, I still believe the proposed A82 realignment, or a revised version of same, presents the right way forward.
The 1987 estimated cost of £7.6 million was surely considerably less than the cumulative damage to business and community in recent years alone. We need local leadership from the Highland Council and Chamber of Commerce to put pressure on the Scottish Government and Transport Scotland to get us back to where we were 30 years ago and have some solution to look forward to. John C Hutchison, Badabrie, Fort William.