§ 12. Mr. Alasdair MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what plans he has to review the present proposals to upgrade the A75 and A76 roads. [2340]
§ Mr. ChisholmI shall announce in the near future our plans for fulfilling our manifesto commitment to a strategic review of the Scottish trunk roads programme as a whole. The A75 and A76 roads will be considered within that context.
§ Mr. MorganDoes the Minister realise how disappointed my constituents will be with that reply, both on the ground of road safety—there have already been several serious accidents on both roads this year—and on economic grounds because of the poor transport infrastructure in Galloway? Does he also realise that the Government's commitment to dual the A55 in Anglesey, which the Under-Secretary of State for Wales, the hon. Member for Neath (Mr. Hain) reaffirmed last week, will drag transport away from the Stranraer-Larne route and will cause further redundancies in Stranraer and Northern Ireland unless roads are also built in Galloway?
§ Mr. ChisholmAs I have said, safety will be a key criterion in the roads review that we will announce later this week. There is a route action plan for the A76 and one to examine the entire length of the A75 is planned. Finally and perhaps most important, a £10 million scheme for the area known as the Glen, which lies immediately to the west of Dumfries, will start in spring 1998.