Praise for Queensferry Crossing rings hollow while country roads fail to deliver

Now the much-heralded Queensferry Crossing has joined the Forth Road Bridge and the upgrades to the A8 to make a continuous M8 east to west across what is looked upon as the Central Belt of Scotland, when can we expect an upgrade to the A7 and the A68 through the southern counties of Scotland, which are important parts of the nation of Scotland and important links with our southern neighbours?

I ask the question as when I highlighted the total lack of investment in the roads network in the Borders some time ago I was told by local MSP Christine Grahame that there was no plan to improve the A7, far less convert it to motorway status, as “we have had to provide a new crossing over the River Forth and we simply cannot afford it”. She went on to say there was no justification anyway to have motorways in the Borders “as the amount of traffic doesn’t warrant it”. Well, I have news for Ms Grahame. I pay the same road tax for my car as a motorist in Glasgow with the same vehicle and I am as entitled to a decent road as he or she is. That is the justification for building a motorway network through the Border Counties taking in the M7 and the M68 – and why not the M72 as well?

We have been promised for some time by cabinet secretary for economy, jobs and fair work Keith Brown that the present Scottish Government is to “finish off the roads network in Scotland”. Scotland is more than the Edinburgh to Glasgow corridor and it is good to see that even in that area folks are asking for signage including Dumfries & Galloway and the Scottish Borders and that the M74 doesn’t just run from Glasgow to Carlisle. There are places in between, just as there are places along the line of the A7 “Alternative Historical Route to Edinburgh” quite apart from Galashiels and Edinburgh. The Scottish Roads network will not be finished until the A7, the A68 and also the A1 are upgraded to routes worthy of the 21st century. Even Police Scotland, the so-called national police force, does not recognise the Border Roads as Trunk Roads, although they are designated as such.

Give us a roads policy and a roads maintenance and improvement strategy run, as it used to be, by the local authorities and the local engineers who knew something about the problems and the local needs.

Transport Scotland isn’t doing the job for us so let’s get back to the local authorities working together to build our roads. Who knows, they might just bring jobs, industry and even tourism, that appears to be beyond our centralised politicians. W KENNETH GUNN, Halliday’s Park, Selkirk

Seeing a newspaper picture of our First Minister alighting from a car I wondered if Scottish Government Ministers are being transported in electric cars to show others a good example.

Of course Scotland likes to be ahead in everything and eight years is as good a figure as any for the mass introduction of electric cars here, but on learning about the proposed A9 “electric highway” one wondered why the entire length of the A9 has not already been completed as a motorway?

JIM CRAIGEN Downie Grove, Edinburgh

I went over the new Forth Bridge on Sunday at midday. There were two-mile queues in either direction. The problem wasn’t tourists, it was drivers merging from the right. A solution might be to reopen the old bridge for traffic to and from Fife and to and from north Edinburgh via Barnton. At least until it all settles down. ALLAN SUTHERLAND Willow Row, Stonehaven