A82 Campaign Team Meet Minister for Transport

Issued by the A82 Partnership

Key politicians, business representatives and community leaders this week met Scottish Minister for Transport, Stewart Stevenson, to press for improvements on one of the most scenic but dangerous stretches of trunk road in the United Kingdom.

A number of speakers on behalf of the A 82 Partnership highlighted the economic benefits that would flow from an upgrade of the the A82 Tarbet – Fort William - Inverness road and the disturbing and growing number of fatalities, injuries and incidents on the busy trunk route.

Transport Scotland is carrying out a Strategic Review of the entire Scottish transport programme at present. The aim of the campaign is to secure the commitment of the Scottish Government to regard the upgrade of the A82 between Fort William and Tarbet as a top priority and make sure that all the work included in the £90M appears in the final programme.

A 82 Partnershp Chairman Councillor Brian Murphy said: “I am very pleased that the Minister took the time to meet with us to listen to our case. Hopefully, we demonstrated the breadth of community and business support for a major upgrade and reminded the Minister of the appalling accident statistics on a road, which has far too many narrow and tortuous stretches.

“We continue to enjoy the support of the people of the West Highlands and Islands to progress our campaign and we fully intend to keep the pressure on the Scottish Government to secure the necessary funding.”

The campaign web site is www.A82.org.