Dual the A9: Liberal Democrats make A9 dualling a manifesto pledge at spring conference in Inverness as leaders Alex Cole-Hamilton and Ed Davey both sign The Inverness Courier’s Pledge to finish the dualling
The Liberal Democrats have fully backed the dualling of the A9 at their spring conference in Inverness by stating the programme will be a manifesto promise.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton and Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey both signed The Inverness Courier’s Dual the A9 Pledge.
That holds the party to push for completion of the Inverness-Perth section by 2035, keeping the public and parliament informed and maximising efforts to prioritise Highland communities.
The Inverness Courier’s campaign is primarily focused on saving lives but also providing the north with appropriate transport links.
Now the Liberal Democrats have become the second national party after the SNP to back our campaign, which was inaugurated by a front page that went viral.
It came after the then transport secretary admitted in parliament that reaching the 2025 deadline was “unachievable”.
Ultimately, former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon left office to be replaced by Humza Yousaf who signed the pledge in December 2023 after the new 2035 deadline was announced.
After he left office, First Minister John Swinney and Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes both signed the pledge as well.
While in Inverness at the Liberal Democrats spring conference Mr Cole-Hamilton revealed that dualling the A9 would be a 2026 manifesto promise.
“If you consider it only took NASA eight years to get to the moon after John Kennedy pledged they would do, it's taken the SNP nearly 20 years to do the A9 and they came to power with a pledge to do that,” he said.
“This is so important, not just for the Highland economy but also for road safety – remember: this is one of the most lethal roads in the British Isles, it has a body count every single year and that body count lies squarely at the door of ministers who have failed to act and get that road dualled.
“So, this will be a key plank of the Liberal Democrat manifesto going into 2026 [Scottish elections] - it will be a manifesto promise. And it would be wrong just to stop at the A9 when there is the A96 as well.
“The critical reality is that the A9 and the A96 are killing scores of people every single year and the mitigating efforts the SNP are trying to bring down those numbers have done nothing to stop that reality.
“So this is about shovels in the ground, expanding the carriageway making sure that where there are accident hotspots there are central reservations so that people cannot drift over or find themselves on the wrong side of the carriageway.
“The A9 and the A96 have to be top of the infrastructure priority list for the next parliament.”
Dualling the A9 is a devolved matter but the Scottish Government has repeatedly said a lack of capital funding from Westminster made investment difficult.
Mr Davey said he would offer what support he could to the programme.
“We're looking to the spending review this June, obviously they need to prioritise those pieces of transport infrastructure that will make the biggest difference for our economy,” he said.
“We've got to grow our economy and I think the Highlands have got a role to play in that.”
