First Minister John Swinney has failed to back a campaign designed to bring forward dualling of the A75 in Dumfries and Galloway.
The campaign is being led by local MSPs Craig Hoy and Finlay Carson and calls for measures to immediately deliver dualling of key sections and full dualling of the road as soon as possible.
Speaking in the Holyrood Chamber, Mr Hoy, who is also the Conservative candidate for Dumfriesshire, urged Mr Swinney to support the renewed push to dual this vital road.
Mr Hoy said: “Too many people are dying in accidents on the A75. Will the First Minister therefore add his voice of support to the campaign launched by Finlay Carson and myself to save lives by expediting the dualling of the A75?”
Mr Swinney failed to back the dualling campaign, claiming instead that the SNP government “has taken a number of measures” to improve road safety on the A75 and to improve the road. Swinney added: “There are obviously ongoing discussions in relation to the upgrade of the road and the government will play its full part in all of those discussions.”
Mr Hoy said he was “deeply disappointed” that Mr Swinney had failed to support a life-saving upgrade to the A75. He later took to X (formerly Twitter) to say: “Today I urged John Swinney to support the campaign I launched with Finlay Carson to save lives by dualling the A75. He didn’t - and all we got were warm words and no concrete commitments. Unlike John Swinney, local residents and businesses can still sign up to support our campaign to dual the A75.”
Details on Craig Hoy and Finlay Carson’s A75 dualling campaign can be found here: https://www.scottishconservatives.com/news/dual-the-a75/
