Delays to a long-standing pledge to fully dual the A96 are being blamed on “politicking of central belt-based Green MSPs”.
Pressure is building on the SNP-Green government to lay out a revised timetable for dualling the A96 Aberdeen to Inverness road and A9 Perth to Inverness route.
The issue was raised again at Holyrood on Thursday, with ministers told the “eyes of the north and the north-east of Scotland are on you”.
It comes a day after SNP backbencher Fergus Ewing made an emotional plea to the government to act, after two more lives were lost on the A9.
North-east Conservative MSP Liam Kerr accused ministers of having “repeatedly kicked the dualling of the A9 and A96 down the road”.
He blamed the Greens on the government’s decision to carry out a “delaying consultation” on fully dualling the route.
The findings of this review are due to be published by the end of the year.
Mr Kerr, who is transport spokesman for the Tories, said constituents are “furious at the abject failure to give firm dates for the work starting”.
He added: “Year after year goes by with no meaningful progress and now thanks to the politicking of central belt based Green MSPs we have a delaying consultation on the A96, with an unpublished report which we’ve just heard is kicked to the end of the year.”
Offer to meet with MSPs
Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth said the dualling of the entire A96 will involve building “substantial offline new roads” due to changes required to the current route.
She told Mr Kerr the current climate emergency means all governments must ensure new roads are “not detrimental to our environment”.
The SNP minister offered to meet with interested MSPs to discuss the project.
The government’s target for dualling the A96 was initially to be 2030, but construction is yet to begin.
The programme was plunged into doubt after the SNP struck a power sharing deal with the Greens last year.
Maggie Chapman, Green north-east MSP, said last year she is confident it will “not be viable” to fully dual the route for environmental reasons.
However, the politician said she does back work being carried out on the route to tackle “specific issues of safety or of congestion”.
Work to upgrade the A9 is still being pencilled in for completion by 2025 but only two out of the 11 sections have been dualled to date.
The Greens were approached for comment.
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