I still vividly remember the day my parents returned home to Conon Bridge from a weekend in Edinburgh, visibly shaken and pale.
They had narrowly avoided a head-on collision on the A9, when an oncoming driver made a reckless overtaking manoeuvre on a single-carriageway stretch just south of Aviemore.
For me, and for thousands of Highlanders, the dualling of the A9 is personal.
‘I followed inquiry from the start’
Anyone who regularly travels this road knows first-hand the dangers. Most of us know someone whose life has been tragically impacted by it.
That’s why, when Laura Hansler – an inspiring figure who has tirelessly held the Scottish Government to account on A9 dualling – brought her petition to the Scottish Parliament, I felt privileged to be part of the Petitions Committee’s work as one of the Scottish Parliament’s communications managers.
I helped set up the launch of the public consultation in Kingussie in the summer of 2023 and attended every key meeting – including those with Alex Salmond, Alex Neil, and Nicola Sturgeon.
I’ve followed this inquiry closely from the start.
The people of the Highlands have been repeatedly let down, and their frustration has only deepened with delay after delay. We’ve heard every excuse, from the pandemic to Putin and the war in Ukraine, but the reality is that these were just smokescreens.
What became clear throughout the inquiry was that the SNP’s commitment to dualling the A9 was more of a facade than a genuine project. Signs were erected along the route, creating the illusion of progress – a Potemkin project, if you will – while behind the scenes, the promise to fully dual the road between Perth and Inverness was fading away.
What’s worse is that the government knew for some time that the original 2025 completion date was unachievable, but they chose to deny it, deflect, and deceive the public. It wasn’t until the Petitions Committee’s inquiry in December 2023 that the Scottish Government was finally forced to admit the truth: the 2025 deadline was no longer realistic.
Now, we’ve been given a new promise – completion by 2035. But already, the Tomatin to Moy section has fallen a year behind, casting serious doubt on whether even this revised date will be met. It’s simply not good enough.
‘The rot set in years ago’
The Committee’s leaked report doesn’t point to a single smoking gun or one minister who took their eye off the ball. Instead, it reveals systemic failure. The rot set in years ago, and minister after minister was content to let the project drift with no real accountability, pushing the completion date further and further into the future.
Both the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government need to take a hard look at this failure. We cannot find ourselves in 2034, a year from the new deadline, still asking when the project will be finished. As someone who witnessed this process from the inside, I can tell you that while the committee’s work has shown the Scottish Parliament at its best, leaks aside, it has also exposed the Scottish Government at its worst.
The toll of lives lost on the A9 is unthinkable, and we cannot continue to tolerate these delays and empty promises.
In the 2026 elections, Highlanders won’t forget this betrayal. We will remember who stood by us and who let us down. The party that shows a real commitment to completing the A9 will be the one who earns Highlander’s support, finally giving this road the priority and focus it deserves.
John Erskine is a former Holyrood official who previously led the communications for the Scottish Parliament’s Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee Inquiry into the A9 Dualling Project.
A former Scottish Labour candidate, he currently works as a Senior Parliamentary Advisor to a Scottish Labour MP.
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