Councillor raises Rest questions
A South Kintyre councillor is seeking answers to three questions when his petition calling for a probe into the handling of the landslip-prone A83 at the Rest and Be Thankful returns before a parliamentary committee this month.
Councillor Donald Kelly and fellow Argyll First councillor Dougie Philand, of the Mid Argyll ward, are behind the petition.
They are calling for a public inquiry into the political and financial management of the project to provide a permanent solution at the A83 Rest and Be Thankful, over concerns about a “waste” of public money, with an estimated £100 million spent on landslip mitigation measures so far.
The petition, which has been discussed by the Scottish Parliament’s citizen participation and public petitions committee on several occasions previously, will once again go before members on Wednesday May 17.
As well as seeking confirmation that the Scottish Government is still committed to funding a permanent solution for the Rest and Be Thankful, Councillor Kelly is asking three main questions:
1. Why are they not recommending a full public inquiry to investigate the money spent to date on the current mitigation measures which had been costed initially at £2/3 million and have now escalated to in excess of £100 million?
2. Why, after all this time, with a permanent solution pending, are they deciding to spend millions of pounds upgrading the Old Military Road?
3. At the beginning of last year, the Scottish Government announced, due to funding constraints, a delay/slippage regarding its proposed infrastructure programme. Is this why this proposal regarding the upgrading of the Old Military Road has come out of the woodwork?
“We have mentioned much of this in our petition, however, I feel up until now, it has been skirted round,” said Councillor Kelly.
“Our main focus is still on maintaining pressure for a public inquiry with regards to the amount of money which has been wasted on the mitigation measures to date, with no solution in place.
“We have been involved in this since the outset and patience is wearing thin regarding the dithering of successive Scottish Government transport ministers over this much-needed project. “The timescale for implementation is the crucial element in all of this.”